THE  WORLD'S  EPOCH-MAKERS. 

EDITED  BY  OLIPHANT  SMEAIDN. 


By 

JAMES  SIME.M.A 


i  1 


THE  WORLD'S  EPOCH-MAKERS 


EDITED    BY 

OLIPHANT   SMEATON 


William  Herschel 

and  His  Work 

^ 

By  James  Sime,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E. 


PREVIOUS  VOLUME  IN  THIS  SERIES  :—- 

Buddha  and  Buddhism. 

By  Arthur  Lillie. 
For  List  of  Volumes  already  issued  and  in  preparation  see  end. 


THE   WORLD'S   EPOCH-MAKERS 


William  Herschel 

and  His  Work 


By 

James  Sime,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E, 


"The  life  of  Herschel  had  the  rare  advantage 
of  forming  an  epoch  in  an  extensive  branch  of 
astronomy."  ,  , 


New  York.          Charles  Scribner's  Sons 
1900 


HT 


•*-/ 

c' 


PREFACE 


To  present  to  the  public  the  life  and  work  of  a  man 
who  powerfully  influenced  the  progress  of  astronomy  a 
century  ago,  and  stamped  on  his  own  age  as  well  as 
ours  a  loftier  view  of  Creation  and  its  Author  than  was 
ever  before  entertained,  may  be  best  done  by  allowing 
him  and  his  contemporaries  to  tell  their  own  story, 
and  to  relate  their  own  impressions.  We  all  prefer  to 
hear  them  speaking,  to  see  them  playing  their  parts  in 
life,  and  to  watch  the  drama  of  surprise,  wonder,  and 
criticism  unfolding  itself  in  their  written  or  printed 
pages.  If  I  have  succeeded  in  my  endeavour  to  tell 
the  story  on  these  lines,  I  shall  have  attained  the  end 
which  I  had  in  view  when  I  undertook  this  work. 

William  Herschel  was  not  a  mathematician  of  the 
order  of  Newton,  Laplace,  or  even  of  his  own  son.  He 
made  no  pretence  to  that  high  honour.  His  fields  of 
research  were  much  simpler,  though  not  less  laborious, 
and  the  harvests  he  reaped  were  enjoyed  by  mankind 
without  a  strain  on  the  understanding  which  very  few 
in  any  age  are  capable  of.  A  popular  exposition  of 
his  career  and  his  discoveries  in  the  light  of  more 

25591T3 


vi  PREFACE 

recent  triumphs  may  be  as  easy  to  follow  now,  and  as 
welcome  as  it  was  in  his  own  day. 

What  Sir  William  and  Lady  Huggins  recently  said 
of  their  own  labours  with  the  spectroscope,  Herschel 
could  have  said  a  century  before  of  the  difficulties 
his  sister  and  he  encountered  and  overcame  with  the 
telescope :  "  It  is  scarcely  possible  at  the  present  day. 
when  all  these  points  are  as  familiar  as  household 
words,  for  any  astronomer  to  realise  the  large  amount 
of  time  and  labour  which  had  to  be  devoted  to  the 
construction  of  the  first  star  spectroscope."1 
1  Atlas,  1899,  p.  8. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.    THE   FAMILY      .           .           .           .           .           .           ...  1 

II.    THE   EDUCATION        .           .           .           .           .            ...  10 

III.  IN   ENGLAND     .           .           .           ...       ••        '•      '     •           •  Z        '  21 

IV.  THE  DISCOVERY   OF   HERSCHEL            ^         ."**>:-.f           •           •  45 
V.    THE  DISCOVERY   OF  URANUS     .           .           .           ...  66 

VI.    ENDOWMENT  OF  RESEARCH 83 

VII.    THE  GREAT  TELESCOPE      .......  106 

viii.  "THE  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  HEAVENS"       .        .        .  128 

IX.  THE  SUN 155 

X.  PLANETS  AND  COMETS 167 

xi.  HERSCHEL'S  ENGLISH  HOME 195 

XII.    DOUBLE  STARS   AND   NEBULA 218 

XIII.    THE  SURVIVOR 238 

APPENDIX 257 

INDEX  263 


WILLIAM  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 


CHAPTER   I 

THE   FAMILY 

CICERO  in  his  exquisite  little  book,  written  two 
thousand  years  ago  in  the  infancy  of  astronomy,  and 
called  Scipio's  Dream,  delighted  the  Roman  world  of 
his  day  with  stories  of  the  stars,  which  were  a  mixture 
of  romance  and  truth.  He  formed  some  idea  of  their 
movements  from  a  rough  approach  that  had  been  made 
even  then  to  a  globe  of  the  heavens,  and  he  filled  his 
readers  with  awe  at  the  music  which  was  believed 
to  accompany  their  passage  through  space.  The  music 
of  the  spheres  has  passed  into  our  language  and  our 
thoughts  at  the  present  day.  But  it  would  have  been 
the  greatest  wonder  of  all  could  Cicero  have  foreseen 
that,  more  than  nineteen  centuries  after  his  day,  the 
true  music  of  the  spheres  and  the  truest  means  of 
hearing  it  sung  would  be  discovered  by  the  genius, 
the  almost  unaided  genius,  of  "  a  philosopher  without 
the  rules,"  a  musician  in  the  town  of  Bath,  then  a 
haunt  of  savages  or  wild  beasts.  He  was  organist 
in  the  Octagon  Chapel  of  that  city,  the  director  of 


'  2"        *  ftEklSCHfit*  AND  HIS  WORK 

concerts  and  balls  in  a  "  rendezvous  of  the  diseased," 
where  "ministers  of  state,  judges,  generals,  bishops, 
projectors,  philosophers,  wits,  poets,  players,  fiddlers, 
and  buffoons "  met  and  trifled,  amid  "  dressing,  and 
fiddling,  and  dancing,  and  gadding,  and  courting,  and 
plotting."  But  so  it  was;  and  never  were  men  and 
pursuits  so  unlike  brought  face  to  face,  or  placed  side 
by  side  in  the  business  of  life. 

When  "  the  music  and  entertainments  of  Bath  were 
over  for  the  season,"  and  "  when  not  a  soul  was  seen 
in  the  place  but  a  few  broken- winded  parsons,  waddling 
like  so  many  crows  along  the  North  Parade,  great 
overgrown  dignitaries  and  rectors,  with  rubicund 
noses  and  gouty  ankles,  or  broad  bloated  faces,  drag- 
ging along  great  swag  bellies,  the  emblems  of  sloth  and 
indigestion,"  this  pleasant-faced  director  of  concerts 
and  oratorios,  this  man  of  smiling  look  and  noble 
bearing,  wearied  out  with  the  music  of  the  season, 
sought  rest  and  refreshment  in  a  constant  and  devoted 
study  of  the  higher  music  of  the  heavens.  He  had 
none  to  help  him  but  a  younger  sister,  who  was  un- 
willingly dragged  from  the  concert-room  and  the 
theatre  to  less  congenial  pursuits,  and  for  some  time  a 
younger  brother,  who  was  believed  to  play  the  violon- 
cello divinely,  and  who  certainly  could  apply  himself 
with  credit  to  mechanical  pursuits.  With  untiring 
energy  he  worked  out  this  ancient  music  of  the  spheres, 
till  the  world  was  astonished  at  his  success,  learning 
confessed  her  debts  to  his  genius,  and  a  new  era 
dawned  in  the  history  of  science.  He  sprang  into  fame 
almost  at  one  bound,  passed  from  theatre  and  music-room 
to  the  Hall  of  the  Royal  Society,  and  was  saluted  by 
organs  of  public  opinion  as  an  "  extraordinary  man." 


MUTUAL  AFFECTION  3 

Of  the  early  life  of  this  musician  not  much  is  known 
beyond  the  brief  record  by  his  sister  and  fellow- 
worker,  Caroline  Lucretia  Herschel,  written  when 
she  was  past  eighty  years  of  age,  and  twenty  years 
after  his  death.  It  was,  as  she  styled  it,  "a  little 
history  of  her  own  life,  1772-1778,"  not  intended  for 
the  eyes  of  an  admiring  world,  but  prepared  for  her 
distinguished  nephew,  Sir  John,  the  only  son  of  her 
brother,  Sir  William  Herschel.  It  is  also  a  most  inter- 
esting story  of  difficulties  overcome  in  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge, — difficulties  that  were  then  almost  insuper- 
able,— of  the  devoted  love  with  which  she  helped  to 
smooth  his  path  to  fame,  and  of  the  moral  beauty 
which  ennobled  her  brother's  life.  An  affection  so 
touching  between  brother  and  sister  is  far  from  an 
uncommon  thing  in  the  records  of  mankind,  but  it 
never  produced  richer  fruit  or  shone  with  brighter 
lustre  than  in  the  lives  of  William  Herschel  and  his 
sister  Caroline. 

Frederick  William  Herschel, — although  he  dropped 
the  name  Frederick  in  England  after  1758,  till  it 
reappeared  in  his  son's  name  in  1792, — the  fourth  of  a 
family  of  ten  children,  was  born  on  November  15, 
1738.  His  sister,  Caroline  Lucretia,  the  eighth  of  the 
family,  was  born  on  March  16,  1750.  She  was  thus 
nearly  twelve  years  his  junior,  an  interval  sufficient  to 
surround  the  elder  of  the  two  with  the  haze  of  romance 
in  the  eyes  of  the  younger.  Between  them  there  was 
a  strong  attachment,  from  the  time  the  little  sister 
could  show  or  express  her  feelings.  From  infancy  to 
old  age  he  was  "the  best  and  dearest  of  brothers"; 
his  son  was  her  pet,  her  dearest  nephew;  and  both 
were  worthy  of  her  affection.  The  dependence  of  a 


4  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

weaker  nature  on  a  stronger  was  not  the  bond  that 
united  brother  and  sister  in  a  lifelong  devotion  to 
science  and  to  each  other.  There  was  something  more 
noble.  They  were  the  two  members  of  the  family  in 
whom  genius  and  perseverance  united  to  overcome 
difficulties.  None  of  the  others  possessed  equal  genius  ; 
none  of  them  were  gifted  with  the  same  perseverance. 
What  these  two  undertook  they  did  with  intense 
affection  for  each  other,  and  with  a  determination  not 
to  be  baffled,  where  others  could  not  be  blamed  had 
they  submitted  to  defeat.  The  other  members  of  the 
family  that  enter  into  the  story  of  the  lives  of  these 
two  were,  the  elder  brother,  Jacob,  and  the  younger, 
Alexander;  the  one  nearly  four  years  older  than 
William,  and  the  other  seven  years  younger.  Flighty, 
vain,  selfish,  and  uncertain,  Jacob  was  a  specimen  of 
what  the  eldest  brother  in  a  family  should  not  be,  but 
is  frequently  allowed  to  become  by  indulgent  and 
foolish  parents.  Of  such  inferior  capacity  to  William 
that  the  latter  mastered  their  French  lessons  in  half 
the  time  taken  by  Jacob,  he  had  the  power  of 
creating  unhappiness  by  starting  difficulties  at  every- 
thing that  was  done  for  him ;  by  selfishly  insisting  on 
travelling  comfortably  by  post,  while  his  father,  with 
an  impaired  constitution,  and  his  brother  William, 
a  fast-growing  and  delicate  lad,  were  content,  for 
economy's  sake,  to  trudge  the  weary  miles  homeward 
on  foot;  by  whipping  his  little  sister,  sixteen  years 
younger  than  himself,  because,  in  her  awkwardness, 
she  did  not  come  up  to  his  lordly  ideas  of  what  a 
tablemaid  should  be  to  a  man  of  his  standing ;  by  his 
bad  humour  when  his  beefsteak  was  hard,  or  because 
Caroline  could  not  use  brick-dust  in  cleaning  the  little 


THE  CINDERELLA  OF  THE  FAMILY      5 

cutlery  they  possessed.  There  was  no  love  lost  be- 
tween a  brother  of  twenty,  who  could  thus  bully  a 
sister  o£  four  or  five,  and  make  himself  disagreeable 
all  round.  It  would  have  been  odd  had  he  not  sown 
in  the  girl's  mind  a  plentiful  crop  of  dislike  or  hatred. 
Alexander,  so  much  nearer  herself  in  age,  was  less 
disliked,  but  does  not  seem  to  have  been,  at  first,  much 
more  loved.  At  one  time  it  seemed  as  if  he  thought 
himself  entitled  to  imitate  the  lordly  ways  of  Jacob, 
and  his  contempt  of  the  little  sister,  shy,  small  for  her 
age,  and  uneducated  even  in  the  family  inheritance, 
music.  William,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  family 
idol  to  the  girl  and  her  parents.  When  she  failed  to 
find  him  and  her  father  on  the  parade-ground  after  a 
year's  absence  from  home,  and  returned  to  the  house 
to  see  them  all  seated  at  table,  "my  dear  brother 
William  threw  down  his  knife  and  fork,  and  ran  to 
welcome,  and  crouched  down  to  me,  which  made  me 
forget  all  my  grievances."  The  young  soldier,  the 
hero  of  her  romance,  was  then  eighteen  years  of  age ; 
the  girl  was  six.  Could  a  more  charming  picture  of 
brotherly  love  have  been  drawn,  or  a  firmer  foundation 
laid  for  the  sisterly  affection  that  continued  unim- 
paired through  half  a  century  of  toilsome  and  absorb- 
ing work  ?  With  much  difficulty  the  girl  was  allowed 
to  receive  some  sewing  lessons  at  a  school  where 
girls  of  higher  rank  were  taught.  It  was  the  means 
of  introducing  her  to  a  young  lady  who,  as  Mrs. 
Beckedorff,  became  a  lifelong  friend  and  companion 
at  Windsor,  and,  sixty  years  later,  at  Hanover. 
Caroline  was,  as  she  says  herself,  the  Cinderella  of 
the  family.  "  I  could  never  find  time,"  she  wrote  in 
1838,  "  for  improving  myself  in  many  things  I  knew, 


6  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  which,  after  all,  proved  of  no  use  to  me  afterwards, 
except  what  little  I  knew  of  music,  being  just  able  to 
play  the  second  violin  of  an  overture  or  easy  quar- 
tette, which  my  father  took  a  pleasure  in  teaching 
me.  N.B. — When  my  mother  was  not  at  home. 
Amen."  * 

The  family,  though  poorly  provided  with  worldly 
goods,  was  richly  endowed  with  mental  gifts,  which 
had  only  to  be  well  laid  out  to  lead  to  wealth  and 
fortune.  The  father,  Isaac  Herschel,  came  of  a  sturdy 
Protestant  stock,  which,  about  a  century  before  his 
birth  on  January  14,  1707,  escaped  persecution  in 
Moravia  by  emigrating  to  Saxony.  Isaac's  father  was 
there  employed  in  the  Royal  gardens  at  Dresden,  and 
earned  a  name  for  himself  as  a  skilful  landscape 
gardener.  A  passionate  love  of  music,  however,  com- 
pelled the  son  to  forsake  his  father's  business  of 
gardening,  and  betake  him  to  his  favourite  study 
under  a  hautboy  player  in  the  Royal  band.  After 
pursuing  the  study  at  Berlin  and  Potsdam,  he  journeyed 
in  1731  to  Hanover,  where  he  became  a  hautboy  player 
in  the  band  of  the  Elector's  Guards,  and  where  he 
married  in  the  year  following.  George  II.  was  then 
Elector  of  Hanover.  To  that  connection  with  Britain 
was  sometimes  due  our  entanglement  in  the  politics 
and  wars  of  the  Continent,  and  the  bringing  across 
of  Hanoverian  soldiers,  perhaps  of  Hessians  also,  to 
defend  this  country  when  threatened  with  invasion 
by  France.  War  brought  its  troubles  to  the  Herschel 
family.  From  these  troubles  arose  singular  com- 
pensations for  the  advancement  of  science,  the  honour 
of  the  family,  and  the  welfare  of  mankind.  On  the 
1  Memoirs,  p.  299. 


FATHER  AND   MOTHER  7 

night  after  the  battle  of  Dettingen  (June  16,  1743) 
the  bandmaster  of  the  Guards,  as  the  father  had  then 
become,  lay  in  a  wet  furrow,  which  sowed  in  him  the 
seeds  of  an  illness  that  never  left  him  during  the  rest 
of  his  life.  It  spread  a  cloud  of  gloom  over  the  family 
circle  for  nearly  twenty  years. 

Isaac  Herschel  was  a  man  of  intelligence,  qualified 
to  talk  on  higher  matters  than  flute-playing  or  band 
music.  But  he  was  not  head  of  his  own  house.  Like 
many  foolish  fathers,  he  allowed  the  eldest  son  to 
usurp  his  place,  nor  did  he  shield  the  younger  children 
from  the  eldest's  bullying.  Apparently  the  mother, 
a  woman  of  small  intelligence,  had  also  a  favourite  in 
her  eldest  daughter,  Sophia,  who  lived  away  from 
home,  and  whom  Caroline  did  not  see  till  she  came 
back  to  be  married  to  Griesbach,  a  musician  of  com- 
monplace ability  in  the  Guards'  band.  Sophia  was 
then  about  twenty-one,  Caroline  four  or  five.  Caroline 
liked  neither  her  sister  nor  her  sister's  husband.  But 
the  married  daughter  did  not  remain  long  away  from 
the  family  she  left.  War  broke  out,  one  of  the  inter- 
minable wars  of  Frederick  the  Great,  which  drove  her 
back  to  her  father's  house.  There  the  impatience  of 
her  temper  and  her  dislike  of  children  drove  Caroline 
from  little  warmth  or  affection  within  the  house  to 
cold  and  neglect  outside.  What  neither  father  nor 
mother  would  have  allowed  in  a  well-regulated  family, 
the  child  was  forced  to  endure,  with  sullen  and  natural 
resentment.  An  elder  brother  and  an  elder  sister  con- 
sidered the  position  of  household  drudge  good  enough 
for  Caroline,  without  schooling,  and  even  without 
sewing.  While  the  father  and  sons  showed  unusual 
knowledge,  and  even  developed  somewhat  of  genius 


8  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

for  music,  this  neglected  girl  was  neither  taught  nor 
allowed  to  sing  a  note.  Her  anchor  of  safety  lay  in 
the  simple  devotion  with  which,  even  then,  she  wor- 
shipped "her  best  and  dearest  of  brothers,  William." 
She  herself  called  it  the  affection  of  "a  well-trained 
puppy-dog"  for  its  master.  In  after  life  she  showed 
more  regard  for  her  sister's  son,  George  Griesbach, 
one  of  the  musicians  of  George  m.'s  court,  than  she 
ever  entertained  for  his  father  or  mother.  But  her 
affection  for  him  was  lukewarm  compared  with  the 
intensity  of  its  glow  towards  another  nephew,  the  son 
of  her  brother  William,  the  distinguished  mathema- 
tician and  philosopher,  Sir  John  F.  Herschel.  Of  the 
latter  she  can  never  speak  enough,  nor  in  terms  of 
praise  sufficiently  high  :  and  deservedly. 

Such  was  the  household  William  Herschel  was 
brought  up  in.  It  was,  or  might  have  been,  a  home 
of  genius.  The  father  had  much  in  him  of  music 
and  of  knowledge  generally  to  fit  him  for  the  training 
and  encouragement  of  his  sons.  But  they  were  not 
all  equally  worthy  of  his  regard.  Ill  health,  while 
they  were  still  children,  the  eldest  not  more  than  ten, 
may  have  weakened  his  vital  power  at  the  time  when 
it  was  most  indispensable  for  him  firmly  to  hold  the 
household  helm  and  keep  every  member  in  his  own 
place.  His  wife  was  badly  fitted  to  rule  or  guide 
their  little  community  of  boys  and  girls.  She  had  to 
fight  a  battle  with  privation  and  a  small  income ;  she 
had  to  face  the  hostile  occupation  of  the  country, 
and  the  unscrupulous  exactions  of  invaders.  Driven 
from  pillar  to  post,  she  pampered  some  of  her  sons, 
she  petted  a  favoured  daughter,  and  turned  another 
daughter,  more  deserving  of  affection,  into  a  household 


THE  MOTHER'S  FOOLISHNESS  9 

slave.  It  was  a  poor  home,  badly  governed,  but  rich 
in  promise.  She  nearly  wrecked  everything  by  her 
folly ;  but  that  folly  was  strangely  overruled  for  the 
welfare  of  humanity  and  the  honour  of  her  own 
children. 

The  Memoirs  of  Caroline  Herschel  furnish  the  only 
trustworthy  account  of  the  means,  by  which  genius 
and  hard  work  combined  laid  the  foundation,  on  which 
her  brother's  fame  was  built.  At  the  same  time  they 
have  left  room  for  myths  or  legends  to  supplement 
facts  or  to  fill  up  gaps  in  the  story  of  the  first  half  of 
his  life.  This  is  unfortunate ;  but  it  was  known  to 
his  sister,  who  was  unwilling  or  unable  to  apply  a 
remedy.  It  is  thus  not  always  easy  to  present  the 
truth  of  these  early  years.  So  busy  was  she  kept  that 
in  1786  she  writes,  "  For  these  last  three  years  I  have 
not  had  as  many  hours  to  look  in  the  telescope." 


CHAPTER    II 

THE  EDUCATION 

THE  education  of  a  child  is  commonly  supposed  to 
begin  and  end  at  school.  It  neither  begins  there  nor 
ends  there.  Reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic  may, 
and  should,  be  taught  in  every  school,  as  the  indis- 
pensable equipment  of  a  boy  or  girl  for  the  battle 
of  life.  But  the  real  school  is  the  world  of  life, 
however  wide  or  however  narrow  its  boundaries  may 
be.  Surroundings  of  one  kind  or  another  encompass 
child  and  man  alike,  forming  the  outer  and  larger 
school,  in  which  all  are  entered  as  pupils  for  self- 
control,  for  truthfulness,  for  honour,  and  other  often 
neglected  but  necessary  virtues.  In  the  elementary 
school  for  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  Caroline 
Herschel  can  scarcely  be  said  ever  to  have  been  entered. 
She  was  a  neglected  child  in  these  respects.  To  a 
woman  of  her  quickness  of  parts  and  calculating 
power  the  multiplication  table  continued  to  be  a 
puzzle  throughout  life.  Elementary  learning  was  con- 
sidered to  be  of  little  or  no  use  to  a  girl  who  was  to 
attend  her  brother's  whims,  cook  his  dinner,  and  brush 
his  clothes.  The  mother,  proud  of  her  sons,  took  no 
thought  of  her  little  daughter,  except  to  reckon  up 
that  the  girl  might  save  her  a  servant's  wages.  Other 

mothers  have  committed  the  same  blunder  since  her 

10 


THE  GARRISON  SCHOOL  n 

days  with  equally  evil  results.  The  ill  health  of  the 
father,  and  their  straitened  means,  may  help  to  explain 
this  neglect  of  the  little  girl,  without  excusing  it. 
Up  to  the  close  of  a  long  life  she  never  ceased  to 
regret  and  reprobate  the  treatment  to  which  she  was 
subjected  in  childhood.  But,  unlike  her  youngest 
brother,  Dietrich,  she  laid  no  part  of  the  blame  for 
this  neglect  on  their  invalid  father.  "  Dietrich,"  she 
says,  "never  recollected  the  eight  years'  care  and 
attention  he  had  received  from  his  father,  but  for  ever 
murmured  at  having  received  too  scanty  an  education, 
though  he  had  the  same  schooling  we  all  of  us  had 
had  before  him." 

It  was  different  with  her  brother  William.  In 
Hanover  there  was  at  that  time  a  garrison  school, 
taught  by  a  capable  teacher.  Master  and  pupil,  find- 
ing in  each  other  what  the  other  wanted,  were  a  credit 
to  their  fellowship  in  learning.  All  the  children  were 
in  the  habit  of  attending  this  school,  from  the  age  of 
two  to  fourteen ;  but  Caroline  seems  to  have  got  little 
good  from  it,  and  at  two  or  even  four  years  of  age 
she  would  have  been  much  better  at  home  under  a 
mother's  care.  The  teacher  had  some  knowledge  of 
Latin  and  arithmetic.  Out  of  school  hours  he  im- 
parted to  William  Herschel  all  he  knew  of  these 
branches.  French  the  boy  also  learned,  as  the  polite 
language  of  the  world  of  civilised  men,  and  the  tongue 
of  the  enemies  of  his  King  and  country.  English  is 
not  mentioned  among  his  acquirements,  although  the 
Elector  of  Hanover  was  then  George  II.  of  England ; 
but  a  King  who  spoke  indifferent  English  at  Windsor, 
or  none  at  all,  would  not  encourage  the  study  of  it 
in  the  garrison  school  at  Hanover.  Even  the  German 


12  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

language  did  not  then  rank  high  in  the  estimation 
of  kings  and  princelings  who  made  a  pretence  to 
literature.  It  was  the  tongue  of  rude  and  ignorant 
boors.  Among  them  French  was  the  language  of 
learning,  literature,  and  politeness.  William  Herschel 
was  too  quick-witted  to  neglect  the  language  of  the 
country  he  was  destined  to  look  forward  to  for  prefer- 
ment. He  became  a  proficient  in  English,  though  at 
the  best  it  was  sometimes  dictionary  English,  with 
its  long  Latin  words,  that  cropped  up  in  his  written 
pages.  Towards  the  end  of  his  life,  his  mother  tongue, 
the  rude  language  of  Germany,  as  it  was  then  deemed, 
became  somewhat  unfamiliar  to  him.  His  sister  Caro- 
line, after  fifty  years'  residence  in  this  country,  had  to 
consult  an  English  dictionary  to  find  or  recover  words 
sufficiently  strong  to  describe  the  objects  of  her t  dis- 
like. Her  brother,  after  a  longer  residence  in  England, 
found  difficulty  in  carrying  on  a  conversation  in 
German  with  the  Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Halle,  who  paid  him  a  visit  at  Slough  shortly  before 
the  close  of  his  life:  "All  accounts  from  his  native 
country  seemed  to  please  him,  although  the  German 
language  had  become  somewhat  less  familiar  to  his 
ear."  So  the  visitor  wrote.  Both  brother  and  sister 
appear  to  have  felt  as  Caroline  felt  when  she  wrote 
in  her  eighty-sixth  year  that  she  was  a  countrywoman 
of  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  and  would  not  be  a 
Hanoverian. 

The  schooldays  of  William  Herschel  ended  at  the 
age  of  fourteen ;  his  real  education  then  began.  Under 
the  careful  instruction  of  his  father,  he  had  become 
an  excellent  performer  on  the  oboe  and  violin.  But 
the  father  had  higher  views  for  a  young  man  of  his 


SCIENTIFIC  TALKS  13 

ability  than  to  see  him  enrolled  as  an  oboist  in  the 
band  of  George  IL'S  Hanover  Guards.  That  was  easy 
of  attainment :  it  was  merely  the  lowest  round  of  the 
ladder,  and  did  not  lead  to  any  height.  The  eldest 
brother,  Jacob,  became  organist,  at  the  age  of  nineteen, 
in  the  garrison  chapel:  he  cannot  be  said  to  have 
risen  higher.  Even  then  the  younger  brother  was 
cherishing  wider,  loftier  flights  for  his  ambition  than 
would  satisfy  a  father's  eagerest  wish  in  the  way  of 
musical  success.  What  these  flights  were  we  can 
dimly  see  in  a  few  glimpses  of  mental  progress  made 
by  the  young  bandsman  during  the  next  few  years. 

The  two  brothers,  it  seems,  were  often  introduced 
to  take  part  as  solo  performers  in  concerts  at  the 
Electoral  court.  Keen  criticism  of  the  music  followed 
on  their  return  home.  But  the  criticism  was  varied 
by  philosophical  and  scientific  talk,  which  frequently 
lasted  all  night.  What  was  the  cause  of  this  unusual 
interlude  in  a  musician's  life  we  are  not  informed. 
But  among  the  subjects  of  discussion  were  astronomy 
and  mechanics,  whether  the  taste  for  these  studies  was 
awakened  or  not  by  what  they  saw  and  heard  at  the 
court  festivities.  William  Herschel  himself  showed  a 
decided  turn  towards  the  invention  and  making  of 
mechanical  appliances,  simple  things  it  might  be,  but 
the  first  appearance  above  ground  of  what  was  destined 
to  be  a  rich  harvest.  Encouraged  by  his  father,  he 
persevered  in  exercising  his  skill.  Long  years  after- 
wards, the  elements  of  mechanical  skill  which  were 
thus  fostered,  developed  into  the  works  which  enabled 
him  to  search  the  depths  of  space  for  its  innumerable 
worlds. 

Another    subject  which    Isaac    Herschel   was    not 


14  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

ignorant  of,  and  seems  to  have  taught  some  of  his 
children,  was  a  knowledge  of  the  starry  heavens. 
Caroline,  who  enjoyed  little  of  her  infirm  father's 
instruction  and  guidance,  was  sometimes  taught  by 
him  to  recognise  stars  and  constellations  in  the  cloud- 
less nights ;  but  the  teaching  then  given  was  not  seed 
that  fell  on  a  good  soil.  With  William  it  was  different. 
He  was  of  an  age  and  a  disposition  to  be  fascinated 
by  the  subject,  and  the  golden  hopes  which  the  science 
at  that  time  held  out  to  astronomers  must  have 
coloured  the  dreams  of  many  a  youthful  star-gazer. 
The  British  Government  offered  a  great  reward  for 
the  best  means  of  finding  the  longitude  of  a  ship's 
place  at  sea.  A  clockmaker  might  solve  the  problem 
by  ingenious  contrivances,  and  win  the  reward;  or 
an  astronomer,  by  more  refined  and  more  subtle 
methods,  might  furnish  the  sailor  with  knowledge 
and  safety,  and  carry  off  the  prize.  William  Herschel 
was  a  boy  of  thirteen  when  a  young  mathematician, 
almost  self  -  taught,  was  appointed  to  a  chair 
in  the  Hanoverian  University  of  Gottingen,  not 
forty  miles  from  the  town  of  Hanover.1  It  was  John 
Tobias  Mayer,  who  taught  there  from  1751  till  his 
death  in  1762,  and  whose  widow  got  three  thousand 
pounds  of  the  reward  for  the  solution  he  left  behind 
him  of  the  problem  of  the  longitude.  It  is  probable 
enough  that  the  name  of  this  famous  astronomer, 
with  whose  writings  Herschel  became  familiar  in 

1  The  favour  with  which  Gottingen  was  regarded  by  George  n.,  who 
founded  both  University  and  Observatory,  could  not  fail  to  exercise  an 
influence  on  Herschel  and  his  father.  In  1756  the  King  presented  the 
Observatory  with  a  mural  quadrant  of  six  feet  radius,  made  by  Bird 
of  London. 


ASTRONOMY  IN  THE  AIR  15 

after  years,  was  of  common  occurrence  in  the  talks 
of  father  and  son.  Nothing  is  more  likely,  for  other 
great  names  are  known  to  have  been  discussed  be- 
tween them.  Another  astronomer,  afterwards  a  friend 
of  Herschel,  made  himself  a  name  in  the  scientific 
world,  Schroeter,  of  the  Observatory  at  Lilienthal,  in 
the  Duchy  of  Bremen,  about  twenty  miles  from  Hano- 
ver. Olbers  and  Harding,  two  of  the  astronomers  who 
afterwards  undertook  to  rival  Herschel  in  the  dis- 
covery of  planets,  belonged  to  the  same  neighbourhood. 
There  was  at  that  time  something  in  the  air  of 
Hanover  and  its  neighbourhood  that  turned  the  eyes 
of  young  men  of  genius  to  the  stars.  It  is  therefore 
not  surprising  that  students  of  the  sciences  so  eminent 
as  Newton,  Leibnitz,  and  Euler  entered  freely  into 
the  talks  between  the  father  and  his  two  eldest  boys. 
Jacob  preferred  sleep  to  talk.  William  never  grew 
tired  of  talk  on  men  and  subjects  so  attractive.  He  was 
surrounded  by  living  and  famous  astronomers.  Their 
works  and  fame  served,  probably,  to  nurse  in  him  the 
spark  of  science  that  his  father  thus  lighted  or  cherished. 
The  prospect  of  war  with  France  in  1755  gave 
Herschel  an  opportunity  of  visiting  the  country  of  his 
dreams,  England.  Discontent  was  rife  in  our  large 
towns ;  incapacity  was  still  more  rife  in  the  army  and 
navy.  It  was  the  age  of  Admiral  Byng,  of  Lord 
George  Sackville,  and  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland. 
The  French  king  was  known  to  be  planning,  and  was 
likely  to  carry  into  effect,  a  descent  on  the  English 
coast.  In  April  it  was  supposed  the  storm  would 
burst  on  Ireland,  for  that  island  was  so  defenceless 
that  ten  thousand  troops  might  walk  from  one  end  of 
it  to  the  other.  In  October  it  was  reported  that  a 


1 6  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

flotilla  of  flat-bottomed  boats  was  assembled  at  Dunkirk 
to  transport  an  army  to  the  English  coast.  The  specu- 
lations of  politicians  were  prefaced  with,  "  If  no  French 
come."  The  situation  was  pronounced  by  some  of  them 
comical,  and  the  nation  droll.  In  March  of  the  fol- 
lowing year  "  the  King  notified  the  invasion  to  both 
Houses,  and  his  having  sent  for  Hessians.  There  were 
some  dislikes  expressed  to  the  latter ;  but,  in  general, 
fear  preponderated  so  much  that  the  cry  was  for 
Hanoverians  too."  Hanoverian  officers  were  even  pre- 
ferred to  the  native-born.  But  the  cynics  of  London 
laughed,  invented,  and  lied.  "  They  said  that  the 
night  the  Hanover  troops  were  voted,  George  II.  sent 
for  his  German  cook,  and  said, '  Get  me  a  very  good 
supper ;  get  me  all  de  varieties :  I  don't  mind  ex- 
pense.' "  Exquisites,  like  Walpole,  were  wondering 
where  their  foreign  defenders  would  be  encamped.  If 
the  Hanoverians  should  be  stationed  at  Hounslow, 
"  Strawberry  Hill  would  become  an  inn,  and  all  the 
misses  would  breakfast  there,  to  go  and  see  the 
camp  !  "  l  Even  in  George  Townshend's  "  admirable  " 
cartoon,  "  which  so  diverted  the  town,"  "  the  Hano- 
verian drummer,  Ellis,"  "  though  the  least  like,  was  a 
leading  feature."  Instead  of  fighting,  Englishmen  were 
sneering  or  laughing. 

It  was  in  these  days  of  fear  and  threatened  invasion 
that  the  King's  Hanoverian  Guards  were  ordered  to 
England.2  Isaac  Herschel  and  his  two  sons,  Jacob  and 

1  Walpole,  Letters,  iii.  109,  164,  165,  206,  209,  217. 

2  "Towards  the  end  of   the  year  1755,"   Caroline   Herschel  says 
(p.  8).     This  does  not  seem  to  be  correct.     Horace  Walpole's  Letters 
would  lead  a  reader  to  place  it  several  months  later,  in  1756.    Neither  she 
nor  her  brother  seems  to  have  been  sure  of  the  date.    (Memoirs,  p.  218.) 


VISIT  TO   ENGLAND  17 

William,  were  in  the  band  of  the  regiment.  Whether 
they  encamped  on  Hounslow  Heath  and  annoyed 
Strawberry  Hill  or  not  is  unknown ;  but  for  a  whole 
year  they  remained  in  England,  till  apparently  the 
invasion  of  Hanover  by  the  French  rendered  their 
presence  necessary  at  home.  There  was  no  invasion 
of  England  except  by  a  flute-player,  who  saw  the  com- 
forts of  the  land,  and  came  back  a  year  later  to  make 
it  and  himself  famous  in  the  arts  of  peace,  and  to  give 
Walpole  a  chance  of  handing  down  to  posterity  in  his 
Letters  the  wonder  excited,  even  among  idlers  and 
diners-out,  by  the  earnest  labours  of  William  Herschel. 
The  only  spoil  the  musician  carried  home  with  him 
to  Hanover  was  a  copy  of  Locke's  Essay  con- 
cerning Human  Understanding,  on  which  he  spent 
as  much  of  his  pay  as  he  could  spare.  His  brother 
Jacob  took  back  some  English  goods  and  some  fine 
clothes. 

Caroline  Herschel  is  of  opinion  that  had  it  not  been 
for  the  war  troubles,  in  which  Hanover  was  now 
involved,  and  had  peace  allowed  these  scenes  of  happy 
discussion  between  father  and  son  to  continue  till  their 
natural  application  to  practice,  her  brother  would  have 
given  proof  of  his  inventive  genius  long  before  it 
revealed  itself,  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of  his  age. 
Prophecies  of  this  kind  after  the  event  are  not  un- 
common, but  they  may  be  as  groundless  as  they  are 
uncertain.  Seed  was  sown  in  Herschel's  mind  by  an 
enlightened  father,  who  "  was  a  great  admirer  of 
astronomy,  and  had  some  knowledge  of  that  science." 
The  boy  of  sixteen  was  also  encouraged  by  him  to  try 
his  hand  on  mechanical  contrivances,  of  which  one  took 
an  especial  hold  on  his  sister's  childish  mind,  "  a  neatly 


1 8  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

turned  4-inch  globe,  upon  which  the  equator  and  ecliptic 
were  engraved."  But  it  was  from  a  passionate  devotion 
to  music  that  the  father  looked  for  fame  and  money 
for  his  two  sons.  He  seems  just  to  have  missed  that 
aim  with  the  flighty  Jacob ; 1  it  is  pardonable  to  doubt 
that  he  could  ever  have  attained  it  with  the  staid  and 
persevering  William.  Neither  of  them  had  in  him  the 
making  of  a  Handel,  who  was  then,  and  had  long  been, 
the  ornament  of  the  English  and  Hanoverian  court, 
and  of  whom  the  aspiring  father  could  not  fail  to  be 
always  thinking. 

A  greater  check  to  progress  than  war  or  poverty 
was  the  mother's  dislike  of  learning.  She  was 
resolved  that,  in  spite  of  her  husband's  wish  to 
educate  Caroline,  nothing  should  be  taught  the  girl 
but  what  might  prove  useful  to  her  as  a  household 
drudge.  She  would  not  allow  her  to  learn  French; 
she  relaxed  so  far  as  to  send  her  for  two  or  three 
months  to  a  sewing  school  to  be  taught  to  make  house- 
hold linen,  to  which  the  girl  added,  out  of  her  own 
ingenuity,  the  making  of  bags  and  sword-knots  for  her 
brothers'  splendour  at  concerts,  before  she  knew  how 
to  make  caps  and  furbelows.  The  mother  made  no 
concealment  of  her  reason  for  this  unjust  and  narrow- 
minded  treatment  of  her  daughter.  Referring  to  later 
troubles  in  which  her  own  folly  involved  the  family, 
she  laid  the  blame  where  it  had  no  right  to  lie :  "  It 
was  her  certain  belief  that  William  would  have  re- 
turned to  his  country,  and  Jacob  would  not  have 
looked  so  high,  if  they  had  had  a  little  less  learning." 
"  There  is  a  great  simplicity  in  the  character  of  this 
nation,"  the  physician  of  George  IV.  wrote  of  the 

1  Burney,  History  of  Music,  iv.  603.     See  infra,  p.  32. 


FLIGHT  FROM  HANOVER  19 

Hanoverians,  when  he  accompanied  that  King  on  his 
visit  to  the  Electorate  in  1821.  Perhaps  Herschel's 
mother  was  an  example  of  this  great  simplicity,  mis- 
placed. At  least  it  resulted  in  years  and  recollections 
of  exceeding  bitterness  to  William  Herschel  and  his 
sister.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  both  of  them 
laid  on  her  the  blame  of  great  mistakes  committed, 
and  grave  responsibilities  incurred,  which  darkened  her 
son's  future  life.  Possibly  it  had  something  to  do  with 
the  difficulty  he  had,  as  he  approached  his  eightieth 
year,  in  drawing  up  an  autobiography,  as  he  wished  to 
do.  He  found  "  himself  much  at  a  loss  for  the  dates 
of  the  month,  or  even  the  year,  when  he  first  arrived 
in  England  with  his  brother  Jacob."  The  work  was 
handed  over  to  Caroline,  who  undertook  it  with  the 
"  proviso  not  to  criticise  on  my  telling  my  story  in 
my  own  way."  Her  youngest  brother,  Dietrich,  the 
scapegrace  of  the  family,  was  under  three  years 
of  age  when  these  sorrowful  passages  occurred  in 
their  household  history.  When  past  seventy  he  was 
as  hard  to  deal  with  as  in  his  teens.  "  Let  me  touch  on 
what  topic  I  would,"  she  writes,  "  he  maintained  the 
contrary,  which  I  soon  saw  was  done  merely  because 
he  would  allow  no  one  to  know  anything  but  himself." 
There  were  two  strains  in  this  large  family,  as 
there  are  in  many  others,  one  tending  downwards, 
another  soaring  upwards,  and  the  former  is  usually 
a  grief  to  the  latter.  Jacob,  Dietrich,  and  Sophia 
represented  the  one  :  William,  Caroline,  and,  in  a 
lesser  degree,  Alexander  represented  the  other.  The 
only  one  who  made  a  fortune  was  William,  and 
the  one  who  got  a  larger  share  of  it  than  any 
of  the  others,  even  than  Caroline  and  Alexander, 


20  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

who  helped  him  to  make  it,  was  the  scapegrace, 
Dietrich.1  Family  histories  are  strange  things  !  And 
yet  Caroline  at  seventy-eight  years  of  age  says  to 
her  nephew,  "  Whoever  says  too  much  of  me  says 
too  little  of  your  father!  and  can  only  cause  me 
uneasiness,"  while  Dietrich  never  believed  he  got 
even  fair  play  for  himself  from  parent,  brother,  or 
sister. 

1  See  William  Herscbel's  will,  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xcii. 
Dietrich  got  £2000,  but  Alexander  and  Caroline  got  £100  a  year  each. 
As  things  went  in  those  days,  the  undeserving  fared  far  better  than  the 
really  deserving. 


CHAPTER    III 

IN   ENGLAND 

FROM  the  brief  and  guarded  indications  given  by  his 
sister  Caroline,  then  a  child  of  seven,  sitting  on  the 
outer  doorstep  and  watching  all  that  took  place  with 
the  wondering  eyes  of  childhood ;  from  her  picture  of 
the  mourning  mother,  and  the  parcel  which  she  carried 
containing  her  son's  accoutrements ;  from  her  view 
of  the  disguised  brother  stealing  past,  and  from  the 
prohibition  even  to  mention  his  name,  it  is  plain  that 
William  Herschel  was  smuggled  out  of  Hanover  in 
the  summer  of  1757.  What  we  might  call  the  con- 
scription was  then  in  full  force  in  town  and  country 
to  supply  the  beaten  army  of  Cumberland  with 
recruits.  But  Herschel  was  a  soldier,  and  was  run- 
ning away  from  the  colours.  He  was  of  a  weakly 
constitution,  growing  rapidly,  and  unfit  for  the  hard- 
ships of  a  soldier's  life.  So  his  mother  said  and, 
perhaps,  also  thought.  For  three  months  both 
Hanover  and  England  had  been  expecting  something 
to  happen  in  the  war  with  France.  The  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  of  Culloden  fame,  found  it  necessary  to 
go  abroad  to  "  take  command  of  the  army  of  observa- 
tion." But  so  ill  was  he  liked  in  England  that,  though 
"  the  drum  was  beat,  none  would  list."  The  soldiers 
under  his  command  in  Hanover,  and  a  motley  crew 


21 


22  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

they  seem  to  have  been,  appear  to  have  viewed  his 
ability  as  cynically  as  it  was  viewed  in  England. 
"  We  hear,"  Horace  Walpole  writes,  "  that  the  French 
have  recalled  their  green  troops,  which  had  advanced 
for  show,  and  have  sent  their  oldest  regiments  against 
the  Duke."  Twelve  days  later,  he  says :  "  This  is  not 
the  sole  uneasiness  at  Kensington;  they  know  the 
proximity  of  the  French  to  the  Duke,  and  think  that 
by  this  time  there  may  have  been  an  action :  the 
suspense  is  not  pleasant."  Five  weeks  later  came  the 
news,  "  We  are  in  a  piteous  way !  The  French  have 
passed  the  Weser,  and  a  courier  brought  word  yester- 
day that  the  Duke  was  marching  towards  them ;  and 
within  five  miles:  by  this  time  his  fate  is  decided." 
A  few  days  more,  and  tidings  came  that  "  the  French 
attacked  the  Duke  for  three  days  together,  and  at  last 
defeated  him:  I  find  it  is  called  at  Kensington  an 
encounter  of  fourteen  squadrons."  It  took  place  at 
Hastenbeck  near  Hameln,  on  the  Weser,  the  scene  of 
the  Pied  Piper's  exploit.  Whether  an  encounter  or  a 
battle,  it  was  fatal  to  the  reputation  of  the  Duke,  and 
the  English  officers  he  had  with  him  ;  and  it  was  fatal 
to  Hanover,  which  from  first  to  last  paid  more  than 
two  millions  sterling  to  the  victors.  Above  all,  it  was 
fatal  to  William  Herschel's  soldiering ;  for  years  also 
it  was  fatal  to  his  prospects  in  life,  and  to  his  peace  of 
mind  as  well  as  his  sister's;  but,  at  last,  it  was  the 
beginning  of  his  endless  fame.  We  can  almost 
sympathise  with  a  deserter  from  such  a  general, 
especially  when  he  fled  to  his  own  King  for  pro- 
tection, not  to  the  enemies  of  his  country. 

An   anxious   and   far   from   sensible    mother    took 
steps   to   save  her  delicate  son.     The   French   were 


EXPLANATIONS  OF  HIS  FLIGHT       23 

about  twenty  miles  to  the  south  of  the  town ;  the 
roads  were  so  bad  that  even  a  King's  coach,  sixty 
years  later,  drawn  by  eight  horses,  could  not  make 
a  longer  stage  than  five  miles;  an  invading  army 
would  move  more  slowly.  The  north  road  towards 
the  sea  was  clear  of  the  enemy:  and  the  German 
outposts  extended  no  farther  than  the  palace  at 
Herrenhausen,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
town.  William  Herschel  passed  these  without  molest- 
ation, journeyed  along  the  Bremen  road,  and  at  last 
found  his  way  to  Hamburg,  to  which  his  trunk  was 
sent  after  him.  In  the  following  year  he  appears  to 
have  crossed  the  sea  to  England.  Obscurity  then 
covers  the  fugitive's  wanderings  for  nearly  ten  years. 
Five  or  six  pages  of  sorrowful  details  are  torn  out  of 
his  sister's  journal  at  this  point ;  and  the  way  of  the 
wanderer  is  lost  in  darkness.  More  is  told  by  her  of 
the  eldest  brother's  comings  and  goings,  of  his  rude 
and  ungenerous  treatment  of  her,  than  of  the  brother 
whom  she  worshipped.  We  could  have  taken  less  of 
Jacob,  and  more  of  William, — "  the  best  and  dearest  of 
brothers," — as  the  circumstances  manifestly  required. 

After  the  lapse  of  seventy  years  Caroline  Herschel 
felt  as  keenly  as  she  did  at  first  the  unpleasantness  of 
her  brother's  flight  from  Hanover.  On  his  return  as 
a  King's  messenger  in  1786,  bearing  a  King's  present 
to  the  University  of  Gottingen,  the  editor  of  the 
Gottingen  Magazine  of  Science  and  Literature  got 
from  him  some  particulars  of  his  early  life,  which  it 
would  have  been  better  if  he  had  not  furnished.  "  In 
my  fifteenth  year,"  he  wrote,  "  I  enlisted  in  military 
service,  only  remaining  in  the  army,  however,  until  I 
reached  my  nineteenth  year,  when  I  resigned,  and 


24  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

went  over  to  England."1  Herschel's  friends  did  not 
know  how  to  gloss  over  this  unhappy  passage  in  his 
life.  What  they  said  in  England  was  as  wide  of  the 
reality  as  what  he  unfortunately  said  of  himself— 
"Unable,  however,  long  to  endure  the  drudgery  of 
such  a  situation,  and  conscious  of  superior  proficiency 
in  his  art,  he  determined  on  quitting  the  regiment," 
and  arrived  in  England  in  the  end  of  1757.  This  is 
not  a  barefaced  statement  of  untruth,  like  the  resigna- 
tion of  his  position  in  the  band.2  But  the  mother's 
foolishness  was  singularly  overruled  for  good. 

Of  William  Herschel's  wanderings  after  escaping  from 
the  beaten  army  of  Cumberland  the  pages  that  are  torn 
out  of  his  sister's  journal  would  probably  have  given 
information,  but  it  is  not  till  two  years  have  passed 
that  we  again  hear  of  him.  He  was  then  in  England, 
along  with  his  eldest  brother,  Jacob.  On  Jacob's  return 
home  in  the  end  of  1759,  William  remained  behind, 
studying  apparently  the  theory  of  music.  Many  of 
his  letters  to  Jacob  on  that  subject  were  written  in 
English,  a  proof  apparently  that  his  mind  was  made 
up  not  to  seek  his  fortunes  elsewhere.  For  five  years 
he  again  almost  disappears  from  view,  till  he  is  seen 
on  a  short  visit  to  his  Hanover  home  in  the  spring  of 
1764,  to  the  joy  of  his  family,  especially  of  his  father, 
then  an  invalid,  and  of  his  young  sister,  Caroline. 
In  the  interval  his  musical  ability  obtained  for  him  in 
his  adopted  country  the  post  of  bandmaster  to  a  regi- 
ment, stationed  in  one  of  the  northern  counties,  said 
to  have  been  the  Durham  Militia.  The  Earl  of 
Darlington  is  said  to  have  selected  him  "to  super- 

1  Quoted  in  Holden's  Life  and  Works  of  William  fferschel,  p.  4. 

2  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xcii.  (1822). 


EARLY  YEARS  IN  ENGLAND     25 

intend  and  instruct  a  military  band  then  forming  by 
that  nobleman  in  the  county  of  Durham.  After  this 
engagement  ended,  he  spent  several  years  in  Leeds, 
Pontefract,  Doncaster,  etc."  That  he  had  been  a 
soldier,  officers  and  men  would  soon  discover  from 
his  language  and  bearing.  But  he  was,  and  seems  to 
have  remained,  a  mystery  for  years.  In  1764  he  was 
residing  in  Leeds,  and  went  from  that  town  on  a 
visit  to  his  relations  in  Hanover.  Towards  the  end 
of  1765  he  became  organist  of  a  church  in  Halifax, 
where  he  applied  himself  to  the  study  of  Latin, 
Italian,  and  mathematics.  Music  he  continued  to 
cultivate  as  his  profession  in  life  during  these  years 
of  wilderness  wandering. 

Southey,  in  one  of  his  stories  from  Doncaster,1  re- 
presents Herschel,  the  astronomer,  to  have  been,  in 
1760,  "only  a  few  months  in  England,  and  yet"  able 
to  speak  "English  as  well  as  a  native."  Miller,  the 
organist  of  Doncaster,  who  lived  in  a  two-roomed 
cottage,  but  had  a  collection  of  classical  English  works, 
became  acquainted  with  him  through  an  officer  of 
the  Durham  Militia,  found  that  his  engagement  with 
that  regiment  was  "  only  from  month  to  month,"  and 
urged  him  to  leave  them,  and  take  up  his  abode  in  the 
"  but  and  a  ben,"  which  he  did.  Swift  is  alone  men- 
tioned as  the  English  author  Herschel  preferred  to 
read,  which,  though  it  be  consistent  with  the  list  of 
favourite  authors  given  by  his  sister,  is  not  altogether 
satisfactory  evidence  of  the  authenticity  of  Southey 's 
story.  But,  be  that  as  it  may,  Miller  was  thus  entitled 
to  be  called  his  "earliest  acquaintance"  in  England, 
and  certainly  his  best  friend,  if  it  be  true  that  he  en- 

1  The  Doctor,  ii.  251,  from  Miller's  Doncaster  (1804),  p.  162. 


26  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

couraged  Herschel  to  apply  for  the  organist's  place  in 
Halifax.  But  Miss  Herschel  in  1822  speaks  of  "  Mr. 
Bulman  from  Leeds,  the  grandson  of  my  brother's 
earliest  acquaintance  in  this  country,"1  and  tells  ug 
that  in  1764  he  paid  them  in  Hanover  a  fortnight's 
visit  from  "  Leeds  in  Yorkshire  (where  he  must  be  left 
for  some  time)."  The  organist's  place  at  Halifax  does 
not  date  from  1760,  but  from  1765.  The  inconsist- 
encies between  Southey's  story  and  Caroline  Herschel's 
are  too  serious  to  allow  us  to  accept  his  version  of  the 
means  by  which  the  organist's  place  at  Halifax  was 
gained  in  or  about  1760  as  true  of  "Herschel  the 
astronomer."  It  is  known  that  his  brother  Jacob  was 
in  England  for  two  years  about  1759. 

While  resident  in  Halifax,  Herschel  appears  to  have 
paid  a  visit  to  Italy,  the  ancient  land  of  poetry  and 
astronomy.  Our  authority  for  this  is  Niemeyer,  Chan- 
cellor of  the  University  of  Halle,  who  visited  Herschel 
at  Slough  shortly  before  his  death,  and  seems  to  have 
received  the  details  of  the  journey  from  his  own  lips. 
When  he  reached  Genoa  on  his  way  home,  he  found  him- 
self short  of  money  to  meet  expenses.  He  had  gone  to 
Italy  to  "  improve  himself  in  his  profession  of  music  "  ; 
and  he  put  his  improvement  to  use  "by  an  original 
kind  of  concert  he  gave  in  that  town,  in  which  he 
played  on  the  harp  and  on  two  horns  fastened  on  his 
shoulders  at  the  same  time."  He  procured  the  money 
he  needed,  and,  had  he  not  been  proud  of  his  youth- 
ful success  as  a  musician,  would  not  have  told  the 
story,  fifty  years  after,  to  his  learned  and  distinguished 
visitor,  as  either  he  or  his  sister  Caroline  must 
have  done.  Her  Memoirs  contain  no  information  on 
1  Memoirs,  pp.  137,  326. 


TEACHER  AND  ORGANIST  AT  BATH  27 

this  tour  and  concert.  Her  brother  William  seems  to 
have  at  that  time  fallen  entirely  out  of  her  life,  and 
to  have  left  her,  without  education,  to  become  a  house- 
hold drudge  and  the  slave  of  her  brother  Jacob.  But 
she  cherished  a  spirit  which,  amid  much  that  was 
extremely  depressing,  scorned  to  be  the  one  or  the 
other. 

In  the  following  year,  1766,  William  removed  to 
Bath,  where  he  became  a  teacher  of  music  and  organist 
of  the  Octagon  Chapel.  For  five  or  six  years  after, 
obscurity  again  settles  on  his  life  and  adventures.  All 
that  Caroline  records  is  that  Jacob  joined  his  brother 
at  Bath,  and  showed  the  same  flightiness  of  disposi- 
tion which  the  family  had  previously  seen  in  his 
character.  To  speak  of  William  as  well  known  in  the 
society  for  which  Bath  was  then  famous,  or  among 
the  learned  men  and  physicians  by  whom  the  town 
was  frequented,  is  to  people  the  darkness  with  visions 
of  what  we  think  should  have  been,  but  was  not.  He 
was  little  known  there  or  elsewhere,  till  he  took  the 
world  by  storm  ;  but  at  that  period  events  were  taking 
place  in  Bath  which  helped  materially  to  lift  the  cur- 
tain of  darkness  off  his  life  in  1772.  He  was  then 
thirty-four  years  of  age. 

The  musical  director  of  Bath  in  those  days  was 
Linley,  whose  daughter  Elizabeth,  "at  the  age  of  twelve 
years,  was  brought  forward  publicly  at  the  Rooms, 
where  she  so  charmed  the  company  by  her  taste  and 
execution "  as  a  singer,  that  she  at  once  received  the 
name  of  the  Siren.  Two  years  later  she  got  a  more 
attractive  name,  and  was  called  the  Angel.  Her  debut 
took  place  in  the  very  year  Herschel  came  to  Bath. 
Before  she  was  seventeen  she  had  turned  the  heads 


28  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

of  all  the  young  men  by  her  beauty  and  accomplish- 
ments. Offer  after  offer  was  made  for  her  hand,  but 
the  preference  was  given  by  her  father,  for  reasons  not 
creditable  to  him,  to  a  suitor  very  much  older  than  she 
was,  but  immensely  wealthy.  With  difficulty  the  girl 
was  persuaded  to  agree  to  the  match.  She  withdrew 
from  all  public  engagements,  and  nothing  was  talked 
of  in  Bath  but  the  approaching  wedding.  While  the 
town  was  in  this  state  of  expectation,  William  Herschel, 
seeing  that  great  prizes  were  in  prospect  for  attractive 
singers,  bethought  himself  of  his  sister  Caroline,  then 
two  or  three  years  older  than  Miss  Linley.  He  proposed 
that  she  should  join  him  at  Bath,  after  receiving  lessons 
from  their  eldest  brother,  Jacob,  in  the  hope  that  she 
"  might  become  a  useful  singer  for  his  winter  concerts 
and  oratorios."  Should  the  experiment  not  succeed, 
he  promised  to  bring  her  back  to  Hanover  at  the  end 
of  two  years.  Evidently  Jacob — he  is  described  as 
"  brilliant "  —  had  been  a  failure  in  Bath.  A  bully, 
such  as  he  was,  could  not  help  feeling  that  it  was  a 
reflection  on  him  to  suggest  she  might  succeed  where 
he  had  failed.  Without  ever  hearing  the  girl  sing, 
he  "  turned  the  whole  scheme  into  ridicule,"  but  she 
resented  his  conduct  "by  taking  every  opportunity 
when  all  were  from  home  to  imitate,  with  a  gag  be- 
tween my  teeth,  the  solo  parts  of  concertos,  shake  and 
all,  such  as  I  had  heard  them  play  on  the  violin ;  in 
consequence  I  had  gained  a  tolerable  execution  before 
I  knew  how  to  sing."  The  cruelty  or  stupidity  of  the 
eldest  brother  had  no  effect  on  William,  except  to 
deepen  his  determination  to  make  this  experiment. 

Meanwhile,  strange  things  were  happening  at  Bath. 
Miss  Linley 's  admirer  threw  up  his  engagement,  and, 


CAROLINE'S  ARRIVAL  IN  ENGLAND      29 

as  compensation,  paid  her  father  a  thousand  pounds 
for  the  loss  of  her  services  at  concerts.  It  was  an 
eminently  discreditable  business  all  round.  But  the 
young  lady  did  not  want  admirers,  especially  in  a 
family  which  migrated  to  Bath  in  1771.  Two  of  its 
members  were  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  and  his 
elder  brother,  Charles,  both  of  them  as  poor  as  their 
itinerant  father,  but  as  foolishly  proud,  though  with 
better  reason.  The  girl  preferred  Richard,  and  in 
that  showed  her  good  sense.  But  she  was  said  to  be 
so  thorough  a  flirt,  that  she  was  at  the  same  time 
giving  Charles  to  understand  he  was  the  favoured 
suitor.1  At  last,  knowing  that  her  father's  consent  to 
a  marriage  with  Richard  would  be  refused,  she  eloped 
with  him  to  France,  and  was  placed  by  him  in  a  con- 
vent. Brought  back  by  her  father,  she  was  married 
to  Sheridan  on  April  13,  1773.  While  this  comedy 
was  proceeding  at  Bath,  Herschel  made  a  brief  run 
across  to  Hanover  in  April  1772,  and  returned  for 
his  sister  in  August.  He  was  able  to  settle  a  small 
annuity  on  his  mother  in  compensation  for  the  loss 
Caroline's  removal  would  entail  on  the  household. 
She  felt  herself  to  be  her  mother's  slave,  to  be  bought 
and  sold.  After  a  journey  of  ten  days,  they  reached 
London  on  the  26th  of  August,  where,  "  when  the  shops 
were  lighted  up,  they  went  to  see  all  that  was  to  be 
seen,  of  which  she  only  remembered  the  opticians' 
shops,  for  she  did  not  think  they  looked  at  any  other." 

1  "Mrs.  Sheridan  is  with  us,"  Hannah  More  writes  to  her  sister  at 
Bristol  in  1778,  "and  her  husband  comes  down  on  evenings.  I  find  I 
have  mistaken  this  lady  ;  she  is  unaffected  and  sensible  ;  converses  and 
reads  extremely  well,  and  writes  prettily."  Mrs.  Sheridan  was  nine  or 
ten  years  younger  than  Hannah  More. 


30  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

She  came  to  England  to  be  a  public  singer,  she  begins 
her  work  by  a  few  lessons  on  optical  instruments  in 
the  shop  windows  of  London.  Herschel  had  by  that 
time  evidently  entered  on  the  race  for  fame.  His 
sister  was  twenty -two  years  of  age. 

Fourteen  years  after,  when  she  had  become  a  cele- 
brity in  all  the  observatories  of  Europe,  at  the  Royal 
Society,  and  in  the  palace  at  Windsor,  she   is   thus 
described    by   a    young    woman,   who   was    then    as 
famous  for  her  pen  as  Caroline  became  for  her  comet- 
finder.     "  She  is  very  little,"  the  authoress  of  Evelina 
writes,  "  very  gentle,  very  modest,  and  very  ingenuous ; 
and  her  manners  are  those  of  a  person  unhackneyed 
and  unawed  by  the  world,  yet  desirous  to  meet  and 
to  return  its  smiles.     I  love  not  the  philosophy  that 
braves  it.     This  brother  and  sister  seem  gratified  with 
its  favour,  at  the  same  time  that  their  own  pursuit  is 
all-sufficient  to  them  without  it."     "  I  inquired  of  Miss 
Herschel  if  she  was  still  comet-hunting,  or  content  now 
with  the  moon  ?     The  brother  answered  that  he  had 
the  charge  of  the  moon,  but  he  left  to  his  sister  to 
sweep  the  heavens  for  comets." x      Was  this  famous 
little  lady  above  thinking  of  the  small  things  which 
delight  the  fancy  of  less  remarkable  women  ?     In  her 
case,  would  the  answer  to  the  prophet's  question,  Can 
a  maid  forget  her  ornaments,  or  a  bride  her  attire  ? 
have  been    Yes  \     Far  from  it.     When  she  made  her 
first  public  appearance  as  a  singer  "  her  brother  pre- 
sented her  with  ten  guineas  for  her  dress,"  and  she 
tells  us  herself  that  her  "  choice  could  not  have  been  a 
bad  one,"  as  the  proprietor  of  the  Bath  theatre  pro- 
nounced her  "  to  be  an  ornament  to  the  stage  ! "     All 
1  (Fanny  Burney)  Madame  D'Arblay,  Letters,  etc,,  iii.  442. 


RACE  FOR  RICHES  OR  FOR  FAME?      31 

the  same,  intercourse  with  fashionable  young  ladies  in 
London  did  not  give  her  a  high  opinion  of  them  or 
their  attainments,  "  she  thought  them  very  little  better 
than  idiots." 

About  three  years  after  his  daughter's  marriage, 
Linley  withdrew  from  Bath.  His  place  was  supplied 
by  William  Herschel,  who,  to  quote  Niemeyer's  words, 
"  led  the  band  at  the  theatre,  conducted  oratorios,  and 
instructed  some  able  pupils  in  that  city."  At  that  time 
"  the  Bath  orchestra  and  its  pump-room  performances 
were  the  theme  of  general  commendation  in  England," 
and  to  maintain  the  same  standard  of  excellence,  especi- 
ally after  the  Misses  Linley 's  retirement,  entailed  heavy 
and  unremitting  labour  on  the  new  director.  Whether 
Herschel  entertained  the  idea  or  not  that  he  might 
succeed  with  his  sister  Caroline  as  Linley  had  succeeded 
with  his  two  daughters  may  be  open  to  doubt,  but  it  is 
unquestionable  that  he  had  it  in  his  power  to  make  the 
trial,  and  that  he  did  bring  her  out  as  a  public  singer. 
The  gains  of  success  were  large  and  tempting.  Miss 
Linley,  now  Mrs.  Sheridan,  was  offered  a  seven  years' 
engagement  in  London  at  a  thousand  a  year  for  twelve 
nights'  singing,  and  as  much  more  for  a  benefit.  Success 
held  out  such  dazzling  prospects,  that  the  certainty  of 
failure  could  alone  have  prevented  Herschel  from  per- 
severing in  his  attempt  to  train  his  sister  as  a  pro- 
fessional singer.  And  he  did  not  persevere.  The  lot  of 
Caroline  Herschel  was  not  destined  to  be  that  of  a  public 
singer ;  it  was  to  be  the  lot  of  a  woman  of  science  at  a 
time  when  few  of  her  sex  could  aspire  to  that  honour- 
able rank.  Had  William  Herschel  succeeded  in  turning 
out  his  sister  as  a  public  singer,  or  in  placing  her  on 
the  throne  vacated  by  Miss  Linley,  would  his  race  for 


32  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

bread  not  have  become  a  race  for  riches  instead  of  a 
race  for  fame?  She  herself  had  hopes  of  becoming 
a  prima  donna  in  the  music  world.  Her  friends 
cherished  the  same  hope.  But  neither  for  her  nor  for 
her  brother  William  did  the  race  for  fame  lead  along 
that  road.  For  her  brother  Jacob,  her  detestation,  it 
might  possibly  have  so  led.  Dr.  Burney,  the  author  of 
a  General  History  of  Music  and  other  works,  was  also 
of  that  opinion.  William  Herschel  to  him  was  the 
"  greatest  astronomer  "  of  the  age,  while  of  Jacob  he 
writes :  "  Herschel,  master  of  the  King's  band  at  Han- 
over, and  brother  of  the  great  astronomer,  is  an  excel- 
lent instrumental  composer  in  a  more  serious  and 
simple  style  than  the  present."1  Other  women  are 
mentioned  by  Dr.  Burney  among  the  singers  of  fame 
in  those  days,  but  Miss  Herschel  gets  no  such  honour- 
able mention  in  the  annals  of  music. 

For  some  years  following  her  arrival  in  England 
the  lives  of  the  two  Herschels  are  so  intermingled 
that  the  history  of  Caroline  is  to  a  large  extent  the 
history  of  William  also.  They  were  both  running 
the  same  course,  and  the  one  was  holding  out  a 
helping  hand  to  the  other  in  the  same  race,  the  race 
for  bread  and  the  race  for  fame.  Flighty,  uncer- 
tain, bullying  Jacob  sunk  out  of  their  life  in  October 
1787 ;  but  another  brother,  more  to  Caroline's  mind, 
had  entered  it,  and  continued  to  diffuse  a  pleasant 
savour  in  the  household  at  Bath,  Alexander,2  about 
five  years  older  than  his  sister.  He  was  of  great 
assistance  both  as  a  violinist  and  a  mechanician. 
Alexander  was  not  of  the  same  cheery,  hopeful  nature 
as  William.  On  the  contrary,  he  went  amongst 

1  History,  iv.  603.  2  Born  November  13,  1745. 


CAROLINE'S  HOUSEKEEPING  33 

them  by  the  name  of  Dick  Doleful,  and  when  he 
fell  into  the  dismals,  as  he  seems  frequently  to  have 
done,  William  and  Caroline  had  the  pleasure  of 
laughing  him  out  of  them  into  good  humour.  The 
house1  was  managed  by  the  family  of  Mr.  Bulman, 
William  Herschel's  "earliest  acquaintance  in  this 
country,"  with  whom  he  lodged  in  Leeds,  and  for 
whom  he  procured  the  situation  of  clerk  to  the 
Octagon  Chapel.  They  occupied  the  parlour  floor. 
"  Alexander,  who  had  been  some  time  in  England, 
boarded  and  lodged  with  his  elder  brother,  and  with 
myself,"  Caroline  says,  "  occupied  the  attic.  The  first 
floor,  which  was  furnished  in  the  newest  and  most  hand- 
some style,  my  brother  kept  for  himself.  The  front 
room,  containing  the  harpsichord,  was  always  in  order 
to  receive  his  musical  friends  and  scholars  at  little 
private  concerts  or  rehearsals."  A  household  so  con- 
stituted, with  a  manager  in  charge  "  who  had  failed  in 
business  "  in  Leeds,  and  a  strong-minded  young  woman 
who  had  known  the  thrift  and  drudgery  of  a  poor 
German  home  in  Hanover,  had  not  in  it  the  elements 
of  stability.  In  six  weeks,  apparently,  Caroline  had 
to  take  the  reins  of  household  management  into  her 
own  hands.  No  details  are  given;  but,  while  still 
unable  to  speak  English  with  comfort  to  herself,  she 
was  put  in  charge  of  the  house  accounts,  and  attended 
to  the  marketing,  with  her  brother  Alexander  on  guard 
behind  to  see  that  she  found  her  way  to  market  and 
home  again  in  safety.  The  first  time  she  ventured 
into  a  clamorous  crowd  of  sellers,  she  brought  back 
whatever  in  her  fright  she  could  pick  up.  But  her 
battles  with  servants  and  her  horror  of  waste  were 
1  No.  7  New  King  Street. 


34  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

greater  trials  to  temper  than  buying  from  market- 
people.  These  were  troubles  which  worried  her  through 
life,  though  a  reader  may  smile  at  the  recital  of  Cin- 
derella's sufferings.  Of  the  poverty  in  her  childhood's 
Hanover  home,  she  wrote  when  she  was  seventy-seven 
years  of  age,  and  had  gone  "  back  again  to  the  place 
where,"  she  says,  "  I  first  drew  breath,  and  where  the 
first  twenty-two  years  of  my  life  (from  my  eighth  year 
on)  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  service  of  my  family  under 
the  utmost  self-privation  without  the  least  prospect  or 
hope  of  future  reward."  Even  then  her  trouble  with 
servants  never  left  her :  "  I  may  perhaps  be  spared  a 
long  confinement  before  I  leave  this  world,  else  such 
a  thing  as  a  trusty  servant  is,  I  believe,  hardly  to  be 
met  with  in  this  city  of  Hanover,  which,  along  with 
the  people  in  it,  are  so  altered  since  the  French  occu- 
pation and  the  return  of  the  military  with  their 
extravagant  and  dissipated  notions,  imbibed  when  in 
Spain  and  England,  with  their  great  pensions,  which 
they  draw  from  the  latter  country,  that  it  is  quite  a 
new  world,  peopled  with  new  beings,  to  what  I  left  it 
in  1772." 

This  young  housekeeper  and  singer  found  herself  in 
a  world  of  astronomical  talk,  for  which  she  had  no 
liking,  when  she  left  her  humble  home  in  Hanover  with 
her  brother  William.  For  six  days  and  nights  they 
travelled  in  the  open  and  inconvenient  postwagen  of 
those  times  to  the  seacoast  at  Hellevoetsluis,  where 
they  were  to  take  ship  for  England.  So  clear  were 
the  nights  that  William  pointed  out  to  his  sister  the 
stars  and  constellations  of  the  northern  sky.  Arrived 
at  Bath,  she  was  launched  on  the  study  of  music  and 
the  practice  of  singing,  but  during  the  long  nights  of 


THE  RACE  FOR  FAME  35 

winter  William,  evidently  to  divert  her  mind  from  the 
depressing  home-sickness  which  weighed  it  down,  gave 
her  lessons  in  astronomy,  or  amused  her  with  dreams 
that  in  a  few  years  became  waking  realities.  He  was 
running  a  hard  race  for  daily  bread,  for  the  thirty-five 
or  thirty-eight  lessons  a  week  which  he  gave  to  music 
pupils  might  be  counted  work  enough  for  an  ordinary 
man,  without  reference  to  his  duties  as  organist  and 
manager  of  concerts.  But  he  had  also  entered  the 
arena  of  science  in  the  race  for  lasting  fame.  A 
holiday  from  teaching  meant  for  him  increased  work 
in  the  astronomical  studies  which  were  now  absorbing 
his  time  and  thoughts.  "  It  soon  appeared,"  his  sister 
writes,  "  that  he  was  not  contented  with  knowing  what 
former  observers  had  seen,  for  he  began  to  contrive  a 
telescope  eighteen  or  twenty  feet  long  (I  believe  after 
Huyghens'  description)."  Her  help  was  continually 
wanted  in  executing  the  various  contrivances  required. 
Although  the  lenses  were  ordered  from  London,  she 
had  to  make  the  pasteboard  tube  they  were  fitted  into, 
and  when  the  telescope  was  turned  on  Jupiter  or 
Saturn,  she  had  to  keep  the  paper  tube  straight  till 
her  brother  got  a  peep  through  it.  We  need  not  be 
surprised  to  read  her  complaint  that  her  music  lessons 
were  much  hindered  by  astronomy,  housekeeping,  and 
indifferent  servants.  She  was  realising  an  old  truth. 
Her  brother  and  she  imagined  that  service  to  two  or 
three  or  even  to  four  masters  was  possible.  They 
were  finding  out  that  they  could  really  serve  only  one. 
And  slowly  but  surely  William  Herschel  and  his  sister 
were  drifting  into  the  service  of  the  one  master,  not 
the  fleeting  fame  of  a  singer  but  the  lasting  fame  of 
a  discoverer.  But  those  days  of  singing  were  never 


36  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

forgotten.  In  the  last  year  of  her  life,  when  visited  by 
the  Crown  Prince  of  Hanover,  his  wife  and  child,  she 
sang  to  them  a  composition  of  her  brother  William's, 
"Suppose  we  sing  a  Catch."  The  gulf  between  1780 
and  1847  was  at  once  beautifully  bridged  by  the  little 
old  lady  of  ninety -seven  ! 

Dollond  had  shown  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions 
for  1758  how  the  colours,  that  rendered  a  refracting 
telescope  useless  as  a  means  of  discovery,  might  be 
obviated.  He  pointed  out  to  his  countrymen  how  flint 
glass  and  crown  glass  corrected  each  other's  defect,  and 
might  be  used,  as  they  had  never  been  used  before,  to 
search  into  the  depths  of  heaven.  It  was  a  marvellous 
discovery;  but  thought  in  those  days  was  perhaps 
slower  of  action  than  it  is  now,  for  a  seed  of  truth, 
laden  with  immense  possibilities,  lay  dying  in  the 
ground  for  sixty  years,  till  Fraunhofer  of  Munich 
applied  it  to  construct  the  great  refractor  of  Dorpat. 
But  it  was  reflecting  telescopes  of  the  Newtonian  and 
Gregorian  pattern,  not  refractors  such  as  Dollond's,  to 
which  the  enthusiast  of  Bath  finally  turned  his  atten- 
tion. What  Gregory  and  Newton  had  proposed  or 
executed  on  a  small  scale,  Herschel  proceeded  to  build 
with  his  own  hands  on  a  vastly  larger,  after  finding 
that  the  cost  of  even  a  small  telescope  would  be  above 
the  price  he  "  considered  it  proper  to  give."  It  was  not 
a  case,  as  might  be  supposed,  of  the  narrow  insularity 
of  our  countrymen  thus  to  neglect  a  great  discovery 
by  following  out  a  more  cumbersome  English  method. 
Gregory,  Newton,  Dollond  all  belonged  to  this  country. 
It  was  also  the  adopted  home  of  Herschel,  but  he  pre- 
ferred the  toilsome  telescopes  of  the  two  former  to  the 
simpler  and  now  possible  instrument  of  the  latter. 


MIRRORS  FOR  TELESCOPES  MADE     37 

"  At  Bath  in  my  leisure  hours,"  he  says,  "  by  way  of 
amusement,  I  made  for  myself  several  2-feet,  5-feet, 
7-feet,  10-feet,  and  20-feet  Newtonian  telescopes; 
besides  others  of  the  Gregorian  form  of  8  inches, 
12  inches,  18  inches,  2  feet,  3  feet,  5  feet,  and  10  feet 
focal  length.  My  way  was  ...  to  have  many  mirrors 
of  each  sort  cast ;  and  to  finish  them  all  as  well  as  I 
could ;  then  to  select  by  trial  the  best  of  them,  which 
I  preserved ;  the  rest  were  put  by  to  be  repolished.  In 
this  manner  I  made  not  less  than  200,  7-feet;  150, 
10-feet ;  and  about  80,  20-feet  mirrors,  not  to  mention 
those  of  the  Gregorian  form,  or  of  the  construction  of 
Dr.  Smith's  reflecting  microscope,  of  which  I  also  made 
a  great  number.  .  .  .  The  number  of  stands  I  invented 
for  these  telescopes  it  would  not  be  easy  to  assign." * 
The  story  he  tells  of  this  magnificent  "  amusement,"  if 
less  racy  than  his  sister's,  is  far  more  wonderful.  Could 
these  mirrors  have  been  sold  at  the  prices  then  ruling 
the  market,  a  large  fortune  would  have  rewarded  the 
maker,  as  it  ultimately  did. 

In  June  1773  the  new  departure  of  Herschel  com- 
menced. Some  of  his  pupils  had  left  Bath ;  concerts, 
oratorios,  and  the  theatre  were  at  an  end  for  five  or 
six  months.  "  To  my  sorrow,"  his  sister  writes,  "  I  saw 
almost  every  room  turned  into  a  workshop."  A 
cabinetmaker  was  making  a  tube  and  stands  of  all 
kinds  in  the  drawing-room;  her  brother  Alexander 
was  "turning  patterns,  grinding  glasses,  and  turning 
eye-pieces  "  in  a  bedroom ;  and  while  this  manufactory 
was  in  its  busiest  whirl,  William  Herschel  was  besides 
composing  glees,  catches,  anthems  for  winter  consump- 
tion in  the  public  rooms  and  the  chapel,  or  holding 

1  Phil.  Trans.,  1795,  pp.  347-48. 


38  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

rehearsals  frequently  at  home.  Alexander  had  to  leave 
his  turning-lathe  for  these  rehearsals,  and  the  seldom 
enthusiastic  sister  writes  of  him,  "his  solos  on  the 
violoncello  were  divine."  It  was  work  without  inter- 
mission. Even  at  meal-times  William  was  generally 
employed  "  contriving  or  making  drawings  of  what- 
ever came  in  his  mind."  Tea  and  supper  were  served 
without  interrupting  the  work  he  had  on  hand.  While 
he  was  at  the  turning-lathe  or  polishing  mirrors  for 
telescopes,  Caroline  read  to  him  Don  Quixote,  the 
Arabian  Nights,  a  novel  of  Sterne  or  Fielding.  In 
course  of  time  she  became  as  useful  a  member  of  the 
household  as  a  boy  might  be  to  his  master  in  the  first 
year  of  his  apprenticeship.  Still  more  "  to  drill  me  for 
a  gentlewoman  (God  knows  how  she  succeeded)  two 
lessons  per  week  for  a  whole  twelvemonth  from  Miss 
Fleming,  the  celebrated  dancing-mistress,"  were  deemed 
indispensable.  The  drollery  of  the  thing !  "  As  I  was 
to  take  part  the  next  year  in  the  oratorios ! "  nothing 
is  wanting  to  complete  the  fun  but  "  two  lessons  per 
week  "  at  so  much  a  lesson  !  The  old  lady  who  wrote 
this  story  of  work  and  drollery — both  of  them  perhaps 
detested  by  her  when  she  was  still  a  fraulein  fresh 
from  her  poor  Hanover  home — may  have  laid  the 
colours  a  little  too  thickly  on  the  picture  of  work, 
earnest,  all-absorbing  work,  and  absurd  fun,  which  she 
left  to  posterity.  We  may  well  be  gratified  she  has, 
for  if  she  escaped  from  the  sneers  of  bullying  Jacob, 
she  certainly  fell  into  the  hands  of  exacting  William. 
The  difference  was  that  she  detested  the  former,  wor- 
shipped the  latter,  and  made  a  great  name  for  herself 
as  well  as  helped  to  make  a  greater  for  him. 

She  entertained  the  idea  that  her  power  as  a  singer 


DROUGHT   BY  DAY:   FROST  BY  NIGHT     39 

would  have  assured  her  a  respectable,  if  not  a  hand- 
some income,  had  her  voice  been  cultivated,  as  it  was 
not.  Others  of  the  family,  reading  her  Memoirs, 
appear  to  have  shared  her  sentiments.  It  is  very 
doubtful.  Her  brother  William — "best  and  dearest 
of  brothers  " — must  have  thought  otherwise,  when  he 
allowed  her  music  lessons  to  be  hindered  by  marketing, 
incompetent  servants,  and  other  trifles. 

The  story  told  by  Herschel  himself  of  his  struggles 
in  Bath  and  afterwards,  if  less  racy,  is  certainly 
more  wonderful.  Encouragement  he  seems  to  have 
had  from  no  one,  not  even  from  Caroline,  who  sub- 
mitted, not  without  grumbling,  to  his  whims  or 
caprice. 

He  was  pursuing  his  studies  with  a  devotion  which, 
to  one  who  reads  the  papers  he  afterwards  wrote,  calls 
to  mind  the  devotion  of  the  patriarch  in  pursuit  of  his 
mistress's  love.  "  In  the  day  the  drought  consumed 
me,  and  the  frost  by  night;  and  my  sleep  departed 
from  mine  eyes."  Most  literally  true  was  this  as  a 
picture  of  the  astronomer's  labours  at  Bath.  "The 
tube  of  my  seven-feet  telescope  is  covered  with  ice  "  is 
his  journal  entry  one  autumn  night.  A  month  later  he 
writes,  "  It  freezes  very  hard,  and  the  stars  are  very 
tremulous."  Two  months  later,  in  midwinter,  we  read, 
"  Not  only  my  breath  freezes  upon  the  side  of  the  tube, 
but  more  than  once  have  I  found  my  feet  fastened  to 
the  ground,  when  I  have  looked  long  at  the  same  star." 
On  removing  to  Windsor,  there  was  no  falling  away  in 
his  devotion  to  this  imperious  mistress.  "  At  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,"  he  writes  on  New  Year's  Day  1783, 
"  my  ink  was  frozen  in  the  room  ;  and,  about  five  o'clock, 
a  twenty-feet  speculum,  in  the  tube,  went  off  with  a 


40  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

crack,  and  broke  into  two  pieces.  On  looking  at 
Fahrenheit's  thermometer,  I  found  it  to  stand  at  11°." 
And,  in  the  height  of  summer  that  year,  "  the  telescope 
ran  with  water  all  the  night,"  that  is,  "  the  condensing 
moisture  on  the  tube  has  been  running  down  in 
streams."  "The  small  speculum,  which  sometimes 
gathers  moisture,  was  never  affected  in  the  7 -feet  tube, 
but  was  a  little  so  in  the  20-feet.  The  large  eye- 
glasses and  object-glasses  of  the  finders  required 
wiping  very  often."  Such  were  some  of  the  discom- 
forts cheerfully  undergone  by  this  votary  of  science  in 
pursuit  of  truth.1 

Amid  labours  so  continuous  and  so  heavy  it  cannot 
occasion  surprise  that  Caroline  sometimes  found  relief 
in  a  fit  of  grumbling.  When  her  brother  was  polishing 
a  mirror,  "  by  way  of  keeping  him  alive,  she  was  con- 
stantly obliged  to  feed  him  by  putting  the  victuals  by 
bits  into  his  mouth.  This  was  once  the  case  when,  in 
order  to  finish  a  seven-foot  mirror,  he  had  not  taken  his 
hands  from  it  for  sixteen  hours  together." 2  The 
delicate  lad,  who,  by  his  mother's  address,  escaped 
soldiering  in  1757,  had  grown  into  a  powerful  athlete 
in  1772.  This  sometimes  happens.  Four  years  later 
he  tried  to  improve  on  Newton's  telescope  by  almost 
doubling  the  light  let  fall  on  the  mirror  at  the  bottom 
of  the  tube.  He  then  experimented  with  a  ten-feet 
reflector,  but  failed.  He  repeated  the  attempt  with  a 
twenty-feet  in  1784,  but  again  was  disappointed :  "  it 
was  too  hastily  laid  aside."  He  succeeded  shortly  after, 
and  found  "  it  to  be  a  very  convenient  and  pleasant  as 
well  as  useful  way  of  observing  " :  it  inverts  the  north 

1  Phil.  Trans.,  1803,  pp.  215-19. 

2  Lalande  told  the  same  story  in  1783.     See  Arago. 


THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY          41 

and  south,  but  not  the  preceding  and  following." l  He 
called  it  the  Front-view,  meaning  that  he  tilted  the 
mirror  a  little  at  the  bottom,  and,  dispensing  with 
Newton's  plane  mirror  at  the  object  end,  secured  all 
the  light  he  could. 

At  that  epoch  in  the  world's  history  there  was  a 
singular  upheaval  of  human  thought  and  effort.  In 
the  years  between  1760  and  1785  the  world  may  be 
said  to  have  witnessed  more  surprising  changes  than  any 
it  experienced  since  the  revival  of  letters  and  the  dis- 
covery of  America.  James  Cook,  aided  by  Joseph  Banks 
and  other  men  like  himself,  discovered  new  lands  or 
new  worlds  of  great  extent  and  beauty  in  the  bosom 
of  the  ocean ;  William  Herschel,  as  the  famous  astro- 
nomer Lalande  expressed  it,  "  displayed  a  new  heaven 
to  earth,"  and  discovered  seventy-five  millions  of  sunny 
stars.  James  Watt  had  solved  the  problem  of  convert- 
ing the  unruly  giant  of  Steam  into  an  obedient  slave  of 
man — the  beginning  of  endless  improvements  in  the 
bettering  of  man's  lot.  Gibbon  had  begun  his  Decline 
and  Fall,  Robertson  was  writing  his  Histories,  and 
Hume  was  stirring  the  whole  world  of  thought  by  the 
boldness  and  novelty  of  his  ideas.  Even  in  the  political 
sphere  that  period  was  a  seedtime  fruitful  of  changes. 
The  new  world  had  changed  hands.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
race  and  language  had  triumphed ;  the  future  of  North 
America  at  least  was  assured.  So  was  the  future  of 
India  to  the  same  hardy  stock.  Voltaire  and  his 
fellow-workers  were  paving  the  way  for  the  violent 
upheaval  that  soon  came  in  Europe.  Everywhere  men 
were  sowing  the  seeds  of  a  harvest  of  progress  and 
blessing,  mixed  and  disfigured  with  many  a  root  of 

1  Phil.  Trans,  for  1786,  p.  499. 


42  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

bitterness.  But  among  the  purest  and  freest  from  vice 
of  all  the  harvests  reaped  from  the  seedbed  then  tilled 
and  sown,  was  that  of  William  Herschel  in  his  laborious 
study  of  the  stars.  It  left  no  bitter  weed  behind  it  to 
poison  or  deface  the  riches  of  its  harvest. 

Herschel  was  prospering  in  worldly  circumstances 
amid  this  stress  of  effort  and  thought.  He  had  learned 
also  what  a  great  poet  expressed  in  words  some  years 
after:  "The  excellence  of  every  art  is  its  intensity, 
capable  of  making  all  disagreeables  evaporate,  from 
their  being  in  relation  with  beauty  and  truth." l  His 
intensity  required  more  room  for  its  exercise.  He  was 
realising,  he  was  putting  into  practical  form  Laplace's 
idea  of  a  philosopher  as  one  "  who,  uniting  to  a  fertile 
imagination  a  rigid  severity  in  investigation  and 
observation,  is  at  once  tormented  by  the  desire  of 
ascertaining  the  cause  of  the  phenomena,  and  by  the 
fear  of  deceiving  himself  in  that  which  he  assigns."  2 
Accordingly,  he  first  "  moved  to  a  larger  house,  which 
had  a  garden  behind  it,  and  open  space  down  to  the 
river."  It  should  be  a  place  of  pilgrimage  to  astro- 
nomers, for  there  discoveries  were  made,  and  also  what 
were  thought  to  be  famous  discoveries,  but  were  not, 
and  there  the  mirror  for  a  great  telescope  was  fin- 
ished. Alone,  without  encouragement  from  the  outside 
world  of  science,  plunged  in  the  depths  of  triflers' 
gay  idleness,  and  sometimes  subjected  to  the  sharp 
tongue  of  his  sister  Caroline,  this  unwearied  worker 
toiled  on  to  his  goal.  He  was  determined  to  see  what 
others  had  not  seen,  to  know  what  others  had  not  dis- 
covered. And  he  succeeded  in  reaching  that  goal. 

1  Keats,  Life,  i.  92. 

2  System  of  the  World,  ii.  310. 


HERSCHEL'S  REVEALING  AT  HAND     43 

When  his  sister  expected  him  to  cheer  her  lonely  life 
by  lesson  or  talk,  he  was  so  absorbed  in  work  that  he 
withdrew  to  his  bedroom  to  study  some  favourite 
author,  and  fell  asleep  in  the  midst  of  his  books.  One 
of  the  favourite  works  she  mentions  was  the  Astronomy 
of  James  Ferguson,  published  in  1756,  the  work  of  a 
self-taught  Scottish  peasant,  whose  proudest  boast,  had 
he  lived  to  see  the  result,  would  have  been  that  he  did 
as  much  as  any  man,  perhaps  more,  to  start  William 
Herschel  on  the  path  which  led  to  results  undreamed 
of  in  the  history  of  science.  And  the  book  that 
Herschel  thus  fell  asleep  over  was  published  anew  by 
a  famous  man  of  science  after  Herschel's  death,  and 
was  enriched  with  the  multitudinous  observations  of  the 
great  astronomer.  Master  and  pupil  were  embalmed 
together  in  that  edition  of  the  Astronomy,  which  can 
still  bear  comparison  with  any  books  of  the  kind  that 
have  been  published,  without  coming  out  second  best. 

But  the  time  of  revealing  William  Herschel  to  the 
world  as  a  practical  astronomer  of  the  first  rank  was 
now  at  hand.  That  he  was  little  known  in  Bath  and 
its  neighbourhood  we  might  gather  from  the  silence 
observed  regarding  him  by  Hannah  More,  whose  sisters 
kept  a  girls'  school  in  Bristol,  where  she  also  resided. 
She  was  a  lover  of  astronomy,  and  in  1762  made  the 
"  acquaintance  of  Ferguson,  the  popular  astronomer, 
then  engaged  at  Bristol  in  giving  public  lectures — an 
acquaintance  which  soon  ripened  into  friendship." ] 
But  the  girl  who,  as  a  woman  of  thirty-four,  knew  and 
recorded  her  impressions  of  Miss  Linjey,  finds  no  place 
in  either  her  Bristol  or  her  London  gossip  for  the  far 
greater  name  of  William  Herschel,  who  conducted 
1  Life,  etc.,  i.  16. 


44  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

oratorios  even  at  Bristol,  was  a  favourite  at  Court, 
and  was  famous  throughout  Europe.  Truly  it  may  be 
said  to  Herschel  what  the  passing  traveller  said  to 
Archytas, 

"  Nee  quidquam  tibi  prodest 
Aerias  tentasse  domos  animoque  rotundum 
Percurrisse  polum  morituro." 

Still,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  discoveries  became 
the  talk  of  London  and  the  world.  Perhaps,  also, 
many  a  British  patriot,  in  indignant  condemnation 
of  the  folly  and  tyranny  which  alienated  the  United 
States  of  America  from  the  parent  stock,  was  echoing 
the  words  of  Horace  Walpole,  "  Mr.  Herschel  will 
content  me  if  he  can  discover  thirteen  provinces," 
among  his  twenty  millions  of  worlds,  "  well  inhabited 
by  men  and  women,  and  protected  by  the  law  of 
nations,  and  can  annex  them  to  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain,  in  lieu  of  those  it  has  lost  beyond  the 
Atlantic."1 

1  Letters,  vi.  258.     On  Herschel's  life  in  England,  and  especially  in 
Bath,  see  Appendix. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   DISCOVERY  OF   HERSCHEL 

HERSCHEL  had  been  studying  the  stars  with  improved 
telescopes  for  upwards  of  four  years  before  any  of  the 
literary  and  high-placed  people,  who  nocked  every 
winter  to  Bath,  knew  that  a  man  of  genius  lived 
among  them  and  was  a  servant  to  their  gaiety  or 
devotion.  Beau  Nash  had  been  a  better  known  figure 
in  their  streets,  a  more  respected  man  among  a  com- 
munity of  fops,  idlers,  and  intriguers,  and  was  deemed 
more  worthy  of  a  statue  in  their  pump-room  or  their 
public  park.1  The  man  among  them,  who  was  destined 
to  write  his  name  on  the  heavens  and  to  live  when 
triflers  and  fops  were  all  forgotten,  attended  their 
church  meetings  as  an  organist,  their  concerts  as  a 
conductor,  and  their  drawing-rooms  as  a  teacher  of 
music  to  them  or  their  children.  They  had  not  dis- 
covered that,  by  the  irony  of  fate,  a  genius,  head  and 
shoulders  above  them  all,  was  toiling  for  bread  one 
half  of  the  year,  and  slaving  for  fame  or  the  welfare 
of  mankind  for  the  other  half.  He  was  really  running 
two  races  before  their  eyes  at  the  same  time,  the 

1  ' '  At  the  east  end  of  the  saloon,  a  posthumous  marble  statue  of  the 
great  Nash,  executed  by  Prince  Hoare,  at  the  expense  of  the  corpora- 
tion, is  handsomely  ensconced"  (Granville  (in  1839),  Spas  of  England, 
ii.  394). 

45 


46  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

indispensable  race  for  bread  along  one  course,  which 
they  all  saw  and  had  little  or  no  sympathy  with, 
and  the  unquenchable  race  for  fame  along  another 
totally  unlike,  to  which  they  were  altogether  in- 
different. To  run  both  races  at  the  same  time  required 
a  spirit  of  indomitable  energy  and  perseverance. 

In  the  world  of  literature  and  science  it  is  not 
unfrequently  the  hard  fate  of  genius  to  be  passed  by 
in  the  crowd,  till  some  onlooker  discovers  it,  as  a 
diamond  may  be  discovered  among  a  heap  of  common 
stones  on  the  roadside.  The  fire  of  genuine  inspira- 
tion may  have  warmed  the  heart  or  lighted  up  the 
eye ;  but,  until  the  onlooker,  long  waited  for,  it  may 
be,  goes  past,  no  difference  will  be  seen  between  a 
genius  and  other  men  by  the  ordinary  crowd  of 
humanity. 

Ministers  of  state,  heads  of  political  parties,  busy- 
bodies  filled  with  national  affairs  were  seen,  recognised, 
or  pointed  out  in  carriages  or  places  of  public  resort 
by  those  who  enjoyed  or  were  compelled  by  doctors' 
orders  to  endure  the  weariness  of  the  place.1  But 
"  there  are  forty  thousand  others  that  I  neither  know 
nor  intend  to  know,"  Walpole  wrote :  "  in  short,  it  is 
living  in  a  fair,  and  I  am  heartily  sick  of  it  already." 
In  the  very  year  in  which  these  words  were  written, 
Herschel  was  settled  at  Bath.  He  was  one  of  the 
forty  thousand  nobodies,  but  Walpole  was  compelled 
in  good  time  to  reckon  him  a  power  in  the  world ; 
he  was  only  a  poor  player  in  the  world's  fair  at 
Bath. 

Court  ladies  and  people  of  distinction  knew  William 
Herschel  at  Bath.  They  patronised  him  and  his  sister, 
1  See  Walpole's  Letters  from  Bath,  v.  160,  Oct.  2,  1766. 


DR. WATSON'S  DISCOVERY  OF  HERSCHEL  47 

got  him  pupils,  and  did  what  they  could  for  him  in  the 
race  for  bread.  But  they  had  no  idea  that  he  was  at 
the  same  time  running  a  race  for  fame,  or,  to  speak 
more  correctly,  was  preparing  to  step  into  that  arena. 
They  would  have  smiled  an  incredulous  smile  had 
anyone  said  so  to  them.  A  music  master  and  a 
director  of  concerts  they  could  understand  and  ap- 
preciate as  an  inferior  creature ;  but  a  man  who 
pottered  about  reflectors  and  refractors,  and  looked  at 
the  moon  from  a  back  garden  or  a  street,  when  the  rest 
of  the  world  had  gone  to  bed,  was  beyond  their  com- 
prehension, or  probably  came  in  for  their  pity.  And 
yet  it  was  on  a  street,  and  late  at  night,  that  the  genius 
of  Herschel  was  discovered  by  an  inhabitant  of  Bath, 
a  perfect  stranger  to  him  and  his  scientific  pursuits. 
So  curious  is  the  romance  of  the  discovery  that  it  is 
best  told  in  Herschel's  own  words. 

"About  the  latter  end  of  this  month  [December 
1779]  I  happened  to  be  engaged  in  a  series  of  obser- 
vations on  the  lunar  mountains,  and  the  moon  being 
in  front  of  my  house,  late  in  the  evening  I  brought  my 
seven-feet  reflector  into  the  street,  and  directed  it  to 
the  object  of  my  observations.  Whilst  I  was  looking 
into  the  telescope,  a  gentleman  coming  by  the  place 
where  I  was  stationed,  stopped  to  look  at  the  instru- 
ment. When  I  took  my  eye  off  the  telescope,  he  very 
politely  asked  if  he  might  be  permitted  to  look  in, 
and  this  being  immediately  conceded,  he  expressed 
great  satisfaction  at  the  view.  Next  morning  the 
gentleman,  who  proved  to  be  Dr.  Watson,  jun.  (now 
Sir  William),  called  at  my  house  to  thank  me  for  my 
civility  in  showing  him  the  moon,  and  told  me  that 
there  was  a  Literary  Society  then  forming  at  Bath, 


48  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

and  invited  me  to  become  a  member  of  it,  to  which  I 
readily  consented."  The  house  in  front  of  which  this 
discovery  of  an  astronomer  was  made,  was  in  River 
Street,1  and  the  discoverer  of  Herschel  was  Dr.  Watson, 
a  distinguished  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Lon- 
don,2 and  a  man  of  whom  Herschel  afterwards  spoke 
in  his  printed  papers  with  the  highest  respect  and 
gratitude. 

A  look  through  a  telescope  in  a  street-observatory 
was  not  uncommon  then  even  for  a  rising  philosopher. 
As  Humphry  Davy  "  was  passing  through  the  streets 
one  fine  night,  he  observed  a  man  showing  the  moon 
through  a  telescope.  He  stopped  to  look  at  the  earth's 
satellite,  and  tendered  a  penny  to  the  exhibitor.  But 
the  latter,  on  learning  that  his  customer  was  no  less 
a  person  than  the  great  Davy,  exclaimed  with  an 
important  air,  that  '  he  could  not  think  of  taking 
money  from  a  brother-philosopher/  " 

Dr.  Watson  and  his  father,  Sir  William  Watson, 
were  well-known  members  of  the  Royal  Society. 
To  the  father  in  1745  was  awarded  the  Copley 
Medal  for  "surprising  discoveries  in  electricity, 
exhibited  in  his  late  experiments."  His  portrait  also 
is  one  of  those  in  the  Royal  Society's  keeping.  The 
son  became  a  Fellow  in  1770.  Like  his  father,  he 
had  a  leaning  towards  the  study  of  electricity.  In 
1756,  when  the  Society  honoured  itself  by  electing 
Benjamin  Franklin,  "although  not  an  inhabitant  of 
this  island,"  a  Fellow,  the  certificate  recommending 
that  this  be  done  was  signed  by  the  President  and 

1  He  soon  afterwards  removed  to  19  New  King  Street. 

2  Dr.  Watson  seems  to  have  done  a  similar  kindness  to  others.     See 
Annual  Register  for  1783  [58-60]. 


BLUNTS  AND  POINTS  49 

seven  others,  of  whom  W.  Watson,  the  father,  was 
one.  In  1762,  Dr.  Watson  in  a  letter  to  the  First  Lord 
of  the  Admiralty l  recommended  that  the  navy  should 
be  supplied  with  lightning-conductors  of  a  pattern 
he  devised.  The  ships  were  furnished  with  them, 
but  they  were  not  a  success,  and  sixty  years  elapsed 
before  conductors  of  a  suitable  construction  were 
fastened  to  the  masts.  Long  before  then  the  danger 
of  powder  magazines  on  land  from  lightning  had 
been  recognised  and  provided  for,  but  not  without 
something  like  civil  war  among  the  Fellows  of  the 
Royal  Society.  A  committee,  of  which  Franklin  and 
Dr.  Watson  were  members,  reported  strongly  in  favour 
of  pointed  conductors  for  the  powder  magazines  at 
Purneet.  One  member  not  only  dissented,  but  formed 
a  party,  who  wrote  and  acted  in  favour  of  blunt  and 
against  pointed  conductors.  Again  a  committee  was 
appointed,  of  which  Dr.  Watson  was  a  member,  to 
put  the  matter  to  the  test  of  experiment.  Their 
conclusion  was  the  same  as  before.  Unfortunately, 
this  was  in  1777,  at  the  height  of  the  war  with  the 
American  colonies.  Party  politics  were  at  once 
dragged  in  to  decide  a  purely  scientific  question. 
Franklin  was  in  favour  of  the  lightning-rods  ending 
in  points.  Philadelphia  also  had  been  provided  with 
them,  and  "not  a  single  instance"  of  mischief  from 
the  severe  thunderstorms  experienced  in  that  city 
had  happened.  That  was  enough  with  foolish  people 
to  condemn  points  and  favour  blunts.  The  Koyal 
Society  decided  for  points;  all  who  voted  on  that 
side  were  counted  friends  of  the  American  rebels,  as 
the  phrase  then  went.  King  George  in.  took  the  side 

1  Lord  Anson  (Phil.  Trans.,  Dec.  16,  1762). 
4 


50  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  the  blunts.  When  Franklin  was  informed  of 
the  King's  action,  he  wrote  from  France :  "  The 
King's  changing  his  pointed  conductors  for  blunt 
ones  is  a  matter  of  small  importance  to  me.  .  .  .  For 
it  is  only  since  he  thought  himself  and  family  safe 
from  the  thunder  of  Heaven  that  he  dared  to  use 
his  own  thunder  in  destroying  his  own  subjects." 
But  George  in.  went  further.  He  even  endeavoured 
to  make  the  Royal  Society  rescind  their  decision  in 
favour  of  points.  Sir  John  Pringle,  the  President, — 
a  man  who  had  been  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy 
in  Edinburgh,  who  was  physician-extraordinary  to 
the  King  and  Queen,  vir  illustris  de  omnibus  bonis 
artibus  bene  meritus, — when  urged  to  use  his  influence 
against  points  and  for  blunts,  manfully  replied,  "  Sire, 
I  cannot  reverse  the  laws  and  operations  of  nature." 
A  late l  addition  to  the  story  is  that  the  King  replied, 
"  Perhaps,  Sir  John,  you  had  better  resign."  That 
he  did  resign  and  withdraw  to  Edinburgh  a  year 
afterward,  is  certain :  whether  points  and  blunts 
had  any  influence  in  causing  him  to  take  that  step  is 
uncertain,  but  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  the 
King's  interference  in  a  scientific  quarrel  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  censure  passed  on  his  generosity 
by  Dr.  Watson,  the  son,  four  years  afterwards.2 

1  In  1820. 

2  Sir  John,  after  his  return  from  Edinburgh  to  London  in  1781,  had 
the  pleasure  of  spending  a  couple  of  hours  on  week-nights  at  a  society 
of  which  he  had  been  for  many  years  a  member,  and  where  he  met 
"with  such  friends  as  Mr.  Cavendish,  Dr.  Heberden,  and  Dr.  Watson." 
It  was  at  one  of  these  meetings  that  Sir  John,  on  the  14th  of  January 
1782,  was  seized  with  a  fit  from  which  he  never  recovered.     In  August 
of  that  year,  with  his  friend's  death  still  fresh  in  his  thoughts,  Dr. 
Watson    gave   expression    to   his    sentiments    regarding  the   King's 
shabbiness  (Annual  Register,  1783  [45]). 


FIRST  PAPERS  FOR  ROYAL  SOCIETY     51 

Possibly,  Dr.  Watson  shared  the  opinion  of  Franklin's 
friend,  who  wrote  the  epigram — 

"While  you,  great  George,  for  knowledge  hunt, 
And  sharp  conductors  change  for  blunt, 

The  nation's  out  of  joint : 
Franklin  a  wiser  course  pursues, 
And  all  your  thunder  useless  views 

By  keeping  to  the  point." l 

Dr.  Watson's  discovery  soon  bore  fruit.  Herschel 
had  been  carefully  studying  the  planet  Saturn  since 
the  spring  of  1774.  He  had  also  been  observing 
the  mountains  on  the  moon's  face  and  making  calcu- 
lations of  their  height.  Besides,  he  had  been  watching 
a  variable  star  in  the  neck  of  the  constellation  called 
The  Whale.  Four  months  after  his  introduction  to 
Dr.  Watson,  he  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society 
through  him  two  papers,  which  were  read  on  May  11, 
1780,  and  modestly  described  as  by  Mr.  William 
Herschel  of  Bath.  The  first  of  the  two  was  "  On  the 
Periodical  Star  in  Collo  Ceti"  The  paper  in  itself  was 
not  of  much  consequence,  and  it  was  on  an  old  and 
well-worn  subject;2  but  it  showed  the  books  which 
had  influenced  him  in  his  astronomical  studies,  as  his 
sister  had  found  by  experience,  and  the  carefulness 
with  which  he  had  for  years  been  making  observa- 
tions on  the  stars.  He  had  no  desire  to  be  considered 
an  amateur.  He  was  in  thorough  earnest,  keeping  a 
journal  of  what  he  saw  in  the  skies,  and  carefully 
noting  every  change  for  future  reference.  On  this 
Stella  Mira,  or  Wonderful  Star,  as  it  was  called  from 
the  "  surprising  appearances  "  it  was  known  to  present, 

1  Weld,  Hist,  of  the  Royal  Society,  ii.  7,  94-101,  392. 

2  See  Lalande,  i.  314  (edition  1771). 


52  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  the  changes  it  was  found  to  undergo  in  333  or 
334  days,  he  made  at  least  fourteen  separate  obser- 
vations and  measurements  between  October  20,  1777, 
and  February  7,  1780.  He  was  only  feeling  his  way 
as  a  recorder  of  what  he  saw  in  the  heavens.  It 
was  but  a  beginning,  and  he  was  forty-two  years  of 
age. 

To  do  justice  to  this  eager  lover  of  nature,  the 
object  which  he  had  in  view  when  he  began  to  make 
telescopes  for  himself,  should  not  be  forgotten.  He 
wanted  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  what  others  had 
seen  in  the  heavens,  he  hoped  to  see  more  than  they 
had  seen,  and  at  last  he  determined  to  build  an 
instrument  of  such  power  as  should  penetrate  the 
depths  of  space  far  beyond  the  boundaries  man  had 
at  that  time  attained.  His  purpose  was  to  see  the 
heavens  as  the  telescope  had  revealed  them  to  the 
eyes  of  others ;  it  was  not  to  be  an  assistant  in  an 
observatory  such  as  Greenwich,  content  to  discharge 
the  routine  work  of  each  day,  or  perhaps  of  each 
night.  A  telescope,  a  most  powerful  telescope,  was 
the  purpose  deeply  rooted  in  his  mind ;  it  was 
not  to  improve  the  instruments  then  in  use,  nor  to 
systematise  the  work  done  in  observatories.  Perhaps 
he  had  a  large  share  in  doing  both.  He  read  the 
scientific  world  a  lesson  on  the  necessity  of  all-night  as 
well  as  all-day  work,  which  they  stood  much  in  need 
of  learning.  Great  and  valuable  as  was  the  work 
done  at  Greenwich  then  and  previously,  it  was  done  at 
small  expense  to  the  nation.  An  astronomer-royal 
at  £300  a  year,  an  assistant  at  £70,  and  a  kitchen- 
garden  was  the  kailyard  policy  pursued  by  our 
country  up  to  1811.  Remonstrances  were  presented 


LIMITS  OF  ERROR  53 

to  the  Government  of  the  day.  The  salary  was  then 
doubled,  "  thirty  chaldrons  of  coals  and  one  hundred 
pounds  of  wax  candles"  were  asked  for,  and  the 
enclosing  of  the  kitchen  -  garden  !  Evidently  the 
official  mind  had  not  grasped  the  idea  that  the 
astronomer  -  royal  was  no  longer  a  fortune- telling 
interpreter  of  the  heavens,  as  Kepler  had  been  forced 
to  become  for  bread  !  With  one  assistant  all  -  night 
work  was  barely  possible  ! 1  The  instruments  in  use 
may  be  judged  of  from  "  An  Account  of  the  Equatorial 
Instrument,"  or  "  mural  quadrant,"  given  to  the  Royal 
Society  in  1793,  twenty  years  after  Herschel  began 
his  labours.  The  precision  of  observation  among 
the  ancients  could  not  be  trusted  to  within  from  five 
to  ten  minutes.  Tycho  Brahe  reduced  the  probable 
limit  of  error  to  within  one  minute.  Hevelius  in  the 
following  century  brought  it  down  to  fiften  or  twenty 
seconds,  and  in  the  century  after  it  was  reduced  to  seven 
or  eight  seconds.2  To  entitle  observations  to  any 
credit  it  was  then  felt  that  a  probable  error  of  more 
than  a  few  seconds  could  not  be  admitted — or  perhaps 
only  a  hundredth  part  of  the  errors  unavoidable  in 
the  days  of  Hipparchus.  In  1827,  Sir  John  Herschel 
was  able  to  say  that  he  had  "  secured  such  a  degree  of 
precision  that  the  stars  cross  the  wire  often  on  the 
very  beat  of  the  chronometer  when  they  are  expected." 
Clocks,  transit-instruments,  mural-circles  may  be  said 
to  have  been  in  their  infancy  when  Herschel  began 
his  work.  He  did  not  propose  to  work  or  measure 
with  these  as  men  do  in  an  observatory.  He  was 
eager  to  see  with  a  telescope;  but  he  soon  found 
that,  if  he  was  to  do  any  good,  he  would  require  to 
1  Weld,  ii.  250.  a  Phil.  Trans,  for  1793. 


54  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

observe  and  measure  as  well.  He  was  one  of  a  race  of 
working  astronomers  of  whom  England  had  cause  to 
be  proud.  They  might  be  called,  but  they  were  not 
amateurs. 

The  second  paper,  read  the  same  day,  and  headed 
"  Astronomical  Observations  relating  to  the  Mountains 
of  the  Moon,"  was  more  ambitious,  and  formed  a  better 
prelude  to  the  path  of  discovery,  on  which  Herschel 
would  soon  enter.  He  begins  with  an  apology  for 
attempting  to  ascertain  the  height  of  the  lunar  moun- 
tains, but  a  "knowledge  of  the  construction  of  the 
moon  leads  us  insensibly  to  several  consequences, 
which  might  not  appear  at  first ;  such  as  the  great 
probability,  not  to  say  almost  absolute  certainty,  of 
her  being  inhabited."  He  is  equally  certain  that 
the  moon  rejoices  in  an  atmosphere  like  the  earth's.1 
Passing  over  this  scientific  faith,  in  the  meantime, 
as  a  heritage  he  received  from  the  past  but  had  not 
examined,  we  find  him  boldly  venturing  to  dispute 
the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  Galileo,  Hevelius,  and 
others  of  great  name.  Galileo  had  made  the  lunar 
mountains  higher  than  any  then  known  on  the  earth, 
five  and  a  half  miles;  but  Hevelius  reduced  this 

1  In  1762,  Samuel  Dunn,  from  "a  nice  examination  of  the  two  ends 
of  Saturn's  ring,  at  sucli  time  when  the  planet  is  on  the  dark  edge 
of  the  moon,"  came  to  the  conclusion  "that  this  diversity  of  appear- 
ance must  have  arisen  from  the  effects  of  an  atmosphere  of  the  moon." 
Previously,  he  states,  the  existence  of  an  atmosphere  was  much  de- 
bated, and  is  "still  undecided"  (Phil.  Trans,  for  1761-2,  vol.  lii.  p. 580). 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Society  on  November  27,  1766, 
the  Prince  de  Croy  expresses  doubts  about  the  existence  of  a  lunar 
atmosphere,  but  "I  am  inclined  to  believe,"  he  says,  "there  is  no 
water  in  the  moon."  He  also  states  that  the  hollows  between  the 
mountains  marked  on  his  diagram  are  surprising  on  account  of  their 
depth. 


THE  MOON'S  FACE  55 

estimate  to  about  three  miles  and  a  quarter.  Herschel 
attacked  the  problem,  armed  with  a  telescope  of  six 
feet  eight  inches  focal  length,  which  he  speaks  of  as 
"  a  very  excellent  instrument,  equal  to  any  that  was 
ever  made."  He  brought  to  it  also  the  same  "  uncom- 
mon diligence  and  attention,"  which  made  up  in  some 
measure  for  the  imperfect  instruments  of  previous 
astronomers;  and  he  had  confidence  in  himself,  in 
his  eyesight,  and  in  the  goodness  of  the  work  he  had 
done. 

He  was  struck  by  the  "  deep  shadows "  cast  by 
mountains  on  the  moon's  surface.  Probably  these 
shadows  were  then  a  puzzle  to  him.  But  he  made 
one  sagacious  observation,  which  subsequent  observers 
have  developed  into  a  view  of  the  moon's  face  alto- 
gether different  from  what  he  started  with.  On  Mons 
Lacer  he  writes :  "  I  am  almost  certain  there  are  two 
very  considerable  cavities  or  places  where  the  ground 
descends  below  the  level  of  the  convexity,  just  before 
these  mountains."  The  moon's  face  is  now  known  to 
be  pitted  with  hollows  of  great  extent  and  depth. 
Herschel's  predecessors  called  them  seas  and  oceans, 
of  which  there  are  none  on  the  moon.  The  hills  and 
mountains  that  rise  from  these  vast  cavities  do  not  at 
the  utmost  greatly  exceed  the  estimate  come  to  by 
Herschel,  a  mile  and  a  half,  or  a  mile  and  three- 
quarters  in  height.  But  if  the  height  be  reckoned 
above  the  hollow  from  which  they  rise,  it  may  be 
nearer  three  times  as  much.  We  count  the  heights  of 
mountains  on  the  earth  from  the  level  of  the  sea.  If 
we  reckoned  from  the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  our  moun- 
tains will  be  found  considerably  to  exceed  in  height 
those  of  the  moon.  It  is  now  known  that  these 


56  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

cavities  in  the  moon  are  from  ten  to  seventeen 
thousand  feet  in  depth,  that  they  are  surrounded  by 
a  great  rampart  or  wall,  a  hundred,  two  hundred,  or 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  round,  and  that  the 
mountains  which  rise  from  the  floor  of  the  cavity 
may  be  about  a  mile  or  a  mile  and  a  half  high.1 

His  study  of  the  moon's  face  led  him,  two  years  after, 
to  believe  that,  from  his  far-off  station  near  Windsor, 
to  which  he  had  then  removed  from  Bath,  he  was 
looking  down  one  night  into  the  depths  of  the  boiling 
crater  of  a  volcano  in  the  moon.  A  discovery  so 
singular  was  not  a  thing  to  publish  till  he  had  full 
assurance  of  its  accuracy.  Four  years  after,  he  be- 
lieved he  had  obtained  evidence  sufficient  to  warrant 
publication.  Others,  well  qualified  to  judge,  were  of 
the  same  opinion.  Among  them  was  a  gentleman 
from  the  Gottingen  Society,  to  which  Herschel  the 
year  before  had  taken  the  King's  present  of  a  10-feet 
reflector.  Writing  to  a  friend  in  Paris,  that  gentle- 
man says : — 

"  May  SO. 

"  SIR, — Mr.  Herschel  has  lately  made  a  discovery  of 
the  greatest  consequence,  of  which  I  have  had  the  good 
fortune  to  be  an  eye-witness.  He  had  observed  last 
month,  one  or  two  days  after  the  new  moon,  in  the 
dark  part  of  it,  three  luminous  points.  Two  of  these 

1  Moretus  is  a  circular  depression  120  kilometres  across  (80  miles), 
with  an  isolated  mountain  in  the  centre  of  nearly  7000  feet  in  height, 
the  most  considerable  of  its  kind  on  the  moon  (Atlas  Photographique 
de  la  Lune,  Paris  1898,  c.  56).  The  depths  of  the  cavities  are  frequently 
very  great,  Tycho,  for  example,  5500  metres,  or  nearly  18,000  feet 
(c.  30,  c.  55).  Some  of  the  mountain  masses  or  tablelands  are  5000 
metres,  6600,  and  7100,  judging  from  the  shadows  they  cast,  or  16,000, 
21,000,  or  23,000  feet  (c.  55,  56). 


EXCITEMENT  THROUGHOUT  EUROPE     57 

points  were  near  each  other,  and  their  light  was  pale 
and  weak.  The  third,  which  he  judged  to  be  about 
three  English  miles  in  diameter,  exhibited  a  much 
stronger  and  a  redder  light.  This  he  compared  to  a 
burning  coal  covered  with  ashes.  These  points  he 
immediately  conceived  to  be  burning  mountains,  the 
two  first  being  either  nearly  extinguished  or  beginning 
to  burn,  and  the  other  in  a  state  of  actual  eruption. 
Mr.  Herschel  did  not  fail  to  communicate  his  observa- 
tion to  the  Royal  Society ;  and  the  philosophers  in  this 
metropolis  waited  impatiently  for  the  next  new  moon, 
which  would  necessarily  confirm  the  observation,  be- 
cause the  eruption  would  probably  not  continue  above 
a  month,  and  consequently  the  phenomena  would  be 
then  very  different,  if  Mr.  Herschel's  conjecture  was 
well  founded.  Friday  last,  the  18th,  the  first  day  of 
the  new  moon,  several  philosophical  gentlemen  attended 
Mr.  Herschel  at  his  house  in  the  country ;  but  the 
weather  was  too  cloudy  to  permit  any  observation. 
The  next  day  I  did  myself  the  honour  to  visit  him, 
with  two  of  my  friends.  Fortunately,  the  sky  was 
perfectly  clear.  After  having  examined,  during  two 
hours,  the  enlightened  part  of  the  moon,  by  means  of 
Mr.  Herschel's  astonishing  instruments,  of  which  it  is 
impossible  to  form  an  adequate  idea  without  having 
seen  them,  we  directed  the  telescope  to  the  dark  part 
of  this  satellite,  and  the  conjecture  of  this  great 
astronomer  was  instantly  confirmed.  The  two  first- 
mentioned  luminous  points  had  totally  disappeared, 
and  the  fire  of  the  other  was  become  pale  and  weak. 
The  diameter  of  its  crater  was  increased  to  about  six 
miles.  Next  month  it  will  probably  be  entirely  in- 
visible. This  discovery  of  volcanoes  in  the  moon  is  a 


58  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

proof  that  the  matter  of  which  it  is  composed  is  similar 
to  that  of  our  earth,  and  also  proves  the  existence  of 
a  lunar  atmosphere,  which  some  philosophers  have 
doubted.  The  science  of  astronomy  is  therefore  in- 
finitely indebted  to  the  zeal  of  Mr.  Herschel. 

"  This  phenomenon  was  also  seen  by  Count  Bruhl, 
Mr.  Cavendish,  Mr.  Aubert,  etc. — Yours,  etc.,    Z.  Z." l 

Lalande,  of  the  Royal  College  of  France,  told  a 
somewhat  more  wonderful  story  to  the  scientific  world 
in  a  paper  which  he  wrote  for  the  Academy  of  Dijon. 
"  Herschel,"  he  says,  "  has  seen  in  the  moon  two  peaks 
or  mountains  formed  almost  before  his  eyes ;  there  are 
in  their  neighbourhood  certain  currents  resembling 
those  torrents  of  lava  that  flow  from  a  volcano  at  the 
time  of  its  greatest  eruption.  This  observation  was 
confirmed  by  an  actual  eruption  very  visible  in  his 
telescope  of  9  feet :  it  is  a  fire  or  light  like  that  of  a 
star  of  the  fourth  magnitude  seen  by  the  naked  eye, 
and  it  appeared  on  the  obscure  part  of  the  moon.  This 
may  help  to  explain  the  observation  of  Ulloa,  who,  in 
the  total  eclipse  of  1783,  saw  in  the  middle  of  the 
moon  a  luminous  point,  which  he  conjectured  to  be  a 
perforation."  Alas  for  the  astronomers  who  probably 
saw  what  they  devoutly  wished  to  see — a  volcano  in 
action  on  the  moon  !  It  was  all  moonshine,  apparently 
a  reflection  of  light  from  our  earth,  when  sixteen  times 
the  amount  of  light  showered  on  us  at  full  moon  is 
then  thrown  by  us  on  her !  But  a  hole  through  the 
middle  of  the  moon,  perhaps  twenty  miles  round  ! 
There  is  no  air  that  we  know  of  on  the  half  of  the 
moon  that  we  see,  and  there  is  no  water.  There  are 
1  Scots  Magazine,  vol.  xlix.  318,  quoted  from  Gentleman's  Magazine. 


WITS  ON  VOLCANOES   IN  THE  MOON     59 

ample  traces  of  volcanic  fires  that  once  lighted  her 
surface,  but  they  are  all  long  gone  out,  and  have  left 
nothing  behind  for  us  but  insoluble  problems  and 
mysterious  wonders — a  world  of  craters,  lava,  preci- 
pices, and  cinders.  That  astronomers  were  mistaken 
was  no  discredit  to  them.  They  stumbled  in  the  race 
for  knowledge.  That  was  all.  If  the  reports  of 
moving  masses,  still  said  to  be  seen  in  the  moon,  be 
confirmed,  there  may  not  have  been  much  of  a  stumble 
after  all. 

While  the  observatories  of  Europe  took  a  serious 
view  of  these  volcanoes  and  lava  rivers  in  the  moon, 
the  wits  of  London,  and  the  King's  equerries  at 
Windsor,  were  making  fun  of  the  whole  thing,  and 
turning  the  batteries  of  ridicule  on  William  Herschel. 
Tea  in  the  room  of  the  wardrobe  ladies  at  Windsor 
Castle,  especially  with  Mr.  Bryant,  the  antiquary  and 
author  in  the  company,  "  was  extremely  pleasant." 
It  was  always  antiquities  or  odd  accidents  with  him : 
"  This  night,  Dr.  Herschel  and  his  newly  discovered 
volcanoes  in  the  moon  came  in  for  their  share."  Next 
evening  three  equerry  colonels  were  at  table.  The 
volcanoes  again  came  into  the  eyes  or  lips  of  some  of 
the  party.  "  I  don't  give  up  to  Dr.  Herschel  at  all," 
cried  Colonel  Manners ;  "  he  is  all  system,  and  so  they 
are  all ;  and  if  they  can  but  make  out  their  systems 
they  don't  care  a  pin  for  anything  else.  As  to 
Herschel,  I  liked  him  well  enough  till  he  came  to  his 
volcanoes  in  the  moon,  and  then  I  gave  him  up :  I 
saw  he  was  just  like  the  rest.  How  should  he  know 
anything  of  the  matter  ?  There's  no  such  thing  as 
pretending  to  measure  at  such  a  distance  as  that." 
The  company  sat  silent  while  this  outburst  of  lava, 


60  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

which  was  at  once  both  right  and  absurdly  wrong, 
was  coursing  along  the  table.  The  lava  had  cooled,  its 
heat  was  forgotten,  when  Colonel  Welbred  quietly 
interjected,  "Sir  Isaac  Newton  had  been  as  much 
scoffed  and  laughed  at  formerly  as  Herschel  was 
now ;  but,  in  return,  Herschel,  hereafter,  would  be  as 
highly  reverenced  as  Sir  Isaac  was  at  present."  To 
it  they  again  set.  Someone  remarked  that  "  upon  the 
heat  in  the  air  being  mentioned  to  Dr.  Heberden,  he 
had  answered  that  he  supposed  it  proceeded  from  the 
last  eruption  in  the  volcano  in  the  moon."  "  Ay,"  cried 
Colonel  Manners,  "  I  suppose  he  knows  as  much  of  the 
matter  as  the  rest  of  them ;  if  you  put  a  candle  at  the 
end  of  a  telescope,  and  let  him  look  at  it,  he'll  say, 
What  an  eruption  there  is  in  the  moon  ! " 

"  But  Mr.  Bryant  himself  has  seen  this  volcano  from 
the  telescope." 

"  Why,  I  don't  mind  Mr.  Bryant  any  more  than  Dr. 
Heberden  ;  he's  just  as  credulous  as  t'other." 

And  thus  the  equerries  wrangled  at  Windsor,  while 
the  rest  of  the  world  wondered  or  laughed  at  these 
volcanoes  in  the  moon.1 

Herschel's  belief  in  an  atmosphere  of  the  moon  was 
a  heritage,  a  traditional  heritage  from  the  past.  Had 
he  fully  examined  the  grounds  on  which  the  tradition 
was  based,  he  would  have  opened  a  field  of  inquiry 
that  remained  closed  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half. 
In  the  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  which  happened  in 
Switzerland  on  the  12th  of  May  1706,  the  red  flames 
and  the  corona,  features  of  an  eclipse  now  known  to 
everybody,  were  observed,  apparently  for  the  first 
time.  Captain  Stannyan,  who  was  at  Berne  with  the 
1  Miss  Burney,  Letters,  iii.  375-380. 


CORONA  AND  RED  CLOUDS  IN  ECLIPSES  61 

British  Envoy,  wrote  that  very  day :  "  The  sun  was 
totally  darkened  for  4 J  minutes  of  time ;  a  fixed  star 
and  a  planet  appeared  very  bright;  and  his  getting 
out  of  the  eclipse  was  preceded  by  a  blood-red  streak 
of  light,  from  its  left  limb;  which  continued  not 
longer  than  6  or  7  seconds  of  time;1  then  part  of 
the  sun's  disk  appeared,  all  of  a  sudden,  bright  as 
Venus  was  ever  seen  in  the  night ;  nay,  brighter,  and 
in  that  very  instant  gave  a  light  and  shadow  to  things, 
as  strong  as  moonlight  uses  to  do,"  Flamsteed  adds 
his  own  comment  on  this  strange  story :  "  The  Captain 
is  set  down  as  the  first  man  ever  heard  of  that  took 
notice  of  a  red  streak  of  light  preceding  the  emersion 
of  the  sun's  body  from  a  total  eclipse.  And  I  take 
notice  of  it  to  you,  because  it  infers  that  the  moon 
has  an  atmosphere;  and  its  short  continuance  of 
only  6  or  7  seconds  of  time,  tells  us  that  its  height 
is  not  more  than  the  5  or  6  hundredth  part  of  her 
diameter"  that  is,  about  four  miles. 

At  Geneva  the  same  eclipse  was  viewed  by  a  friend 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Facio  Duillier,  who,  apparently, 
did  not  see  the  "  blood-red  streak,"  but  gives  a  good 
description  of  the  Crown,  or  as  it  is  now  called,  the 
Corona.  "  The  clouds,"  he  says,  "  did  change  of  a 
sudden  their  colour,  and  became  red,  and  then  of  a 
pale  violet.  There  was  seen,  during  the  whole  time 
of  the  total  immersion,  a  whiteness,  which  did  seem 
to  break  out  from  behind  the  moon,  and  to  encom- 
pass it  on  all  sides  equally.  The  same  whiteness  was 
but  little  determined,  in  its  outward  side,  and  was 

1  In  the  total  eclipse  of  the  present  year  there  was  seen  "a  brilliant 
display  of  carmine-coloured  prominences  extending  over  an  arc  of  at 
least  60  deg."  (Times,  June  1,  1900,  p.  10). 


62  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

not  broad  the  twelfth  part  of  the  diameter  of  the  moon. 
This  planet  did  appear  very  black,  and  her  disk  very 
well  defined,  within  the  whiteness,  which  encompassed 
it  about,  and  whose  colour  was  the  same  with  that  of 
a  white  crown  or  halo,  of  about  four  or  five  degrees 
in  diameter,  which  accompanied  it,  and  had  the  moon 
for  its  centre.  ...  A  little  time  after  the  sun  had 
began  to  appear  again,  the  whiteness  and  the  crown, 
which  did  encompass  the  moon,  did  entirely  vanish." * 
Duillier's  comment  on  this  description  of  the  corona  is : 
"  The  moon's  atmosphere  cannot  well  be  supposed  less 
than  of  130  miles,  in  perpendicular  height.  .  .  .  Though 
it  was  very  plain  that  the  atmosphere  of  the  moon 
must  needs  show  itself,  in  the  time  of  a  total  eclipse 
of  the  sun;  yet  I  do  not  know  that  anybody  did 
think  of  this,  till  in  the  last  month  of  May,  many 
persons  did  actually  see  it." 2 

At  Zurich  Dr.  Scheuchzer,  in  four  lines  of  Latin, 
describes  how  they  had  a  solar  eclipse,  at  once  total 
and  annular;  total,  because  the  sun  was  wholly 
covered  by  the  moon ;  annular,  not  properly  so  called, 
but  by  refraction,  since  around  the  moon  appeared  a 
ruddy  brightness  (fulgor  rutilans),  caused  by  rays 
refracted  through  the  moon's  atmosphere. 

The  blood-red  streak,  the  corona,  the  ruddy  bright- 
ness observed  during  the  total  eclipse  of  1706,  the 

1  A  letter  from  a  friend  at  Marseilles  informed  Duillier  that,  during 
totality,  "there  did  remain  one  bright  digit,  all  about  the  globe  of  the 
moon "  (Phil.  Trans.  (No.  306),  p.  2237). 

2  "The  red  prominences  were  first  seen  during  the  solar  eclipse  of 
8th  July  1842  "  (Proctor,  JEncyc.  Brit.  vol.  ii.  p.  788).     Baily  was  not 
the  first  to  see  them.     Captain  Stannyan  and  Dr.  Scheuchzer  carried  off 
the  honour  136  years  earlier.     Facio  Duillier  has  the  credit  of  first 
describing  the  corona. 


THE  MOON'S  ATMOSPHERE  63 

doubts  about  the  moon's  atmosphere,  and  the  difficulties 
experienced  in  accounting  for  the  crown,  "or  else 
concerning  a  meteor  observed,  not  in  our  air,  but  in 
the  vapours  that  encompass  the  sun,"  might  have 
warned  Dr.  Halley  and  others  to  be  especially  watchful 
when  a  total  eclipse  was  due  in  Britain  on  April  22, 
1715.  Halley  admitted  the  points  named  to  be  "very 
singular,  and  deserving  a  great  deal  of  attention."  He 
believed  that  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  had  not  been 
seen  in  London  since  March  20,  1140  A.D.  He  passes 
a  gentle  censure  on  the  French  astronomers  for  their 
indifference  to  the  total  eclipse  of  1706,  but  excuses 
them  on  the  ground  that  it  was  the  first  which  "  had 
been  observed  with  the  attention  the  dignity  of  the 
phenomenon  requires."  Strange  to  say,  he  made  no 
preparation  to  watch  for  "  the  blood-streak  "  and  "  the 
luminous  ring"  that  crowned  the  black  body  of  the 
moon,  when  the  chance  of  seeing  them  again  was 
presented  in  1715.  They  were  seen  and  described  by 
him  with  a  singular  turning  aside  from  facts  to  fables 
about  the  moon's  atmosphere,  and  the  vapours  that 
were  raised  or  the  dews  that  fell  on  her  surface. 
Here  is  the  account  Halley  gives  of  the  red  clouds 
and  the  luminous  ring  in  the  eclipse  of  1715:1 — 

"A  few  seconds  before  the  sun  was  all  hid,  there 
discovered  itself  round  the  moon  a  luminous  ring, 
about  a  digit,  or  perhaps  a  tenth  part  of  the  moon's 
diameter  in  breadth.  It  was  of  a  pale  whiteness  or 
rather  pearl  colour,  seeming  to  me  a  little  tinged  with 
the  colours  of  the  Iris,  and  to  be  concentric  with  the 
moon,  whence  I  concluded  it  the  moon's  atmosphere. 
But  the  great  height  thereof  far  exceeding  that  of  our 
"Dews,"  Phil.  Trans,  xxix.  p.  248. 


64  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

earth's  atmosphere ;  and  the  observations  of  some,  who 
found  the  breadth  of  the  ring  to  increase  on  the  west 
side  of  the  moon  as  the  emersion  approached,  together 
with  the  contrary  sentiments  of  those  whose  judg- 
ment I  shall  always  revere,  makes  me  less  confident, 
especially  in  a  matter  whereto  I  own  I  gave  not  all 
the  attention  requisite. 

"  Whatever  it  was,  this  ring  appeared  much  brighter 
and  whiter  near  the  body  of  the  moon  than  at  a 
distance  from  it ;  and  its  outward  circumference, 
which  was  ill  defined,  seemed  terminated  only  by 
the  extreme  rarity  of  the  matter  it  was  composed 
of ;  and  in  all  respects  resembled  the  appearance  of  an 
enlightened  atmosphere  viewed  from  far ;  but  whether 
it  belonged  to  the  sun  or  moon  I  shall  not  at  present 
undertake  to  decide. 

"  During  the  whole  time  of  the  total  eclipse  I  kept 
my  telescope  constantly  fixed  on  the  moon,  in  order  to 
observe  what  might  occur  in  this  uncommon  appear- 
ance :  and  I  found  that  there  were  perpetual  flashes  or 
coruscations  of  light,  which  seemed  for  a  moment  to 
dart  out  from  behind  the  moon,  now  here,  now  there, 
on  all  sides ;  but  more  especially  on  the  western  side 
before  the  emersion ;  and  about  two  or  three  seconds 
before  it,  on  the  same  western  side  where  the  sun  was 
just  coming  out,  a  long  and  very  narrow  streak  of  a 
dusky  but  strong  red  light  seeemed  to  colour  the  dark 
edge  of  the  moon;  though  nothing  like  it  had  been 
seen  immediately  after  the  immersion.  But  this 
instantly  vanished  upon  the  first  appearance  of  the 
sun,  as  did  also  the  aforesaid  luminous  ring."1 

1  On  the  eclipse  of  July  7  (8),  1842,  Baily  writes  :  "The  breadth  of  the 
corona  from  the  circumference  of  the  moon  was  nearly  equal  to  half  of 


MOON'S  ATMOSPHERE  "RARE"       65 

Halley  adds  to  this  beautiful  description  that  the 
darkness  was  "  more  perfect,"  and  the  stars  seen  were 
more  numerous,  in  some  places  than  in  others;  but 
"  the  light  of  the  ring  was  to  all  alike."  From  the 
north  of  England,  too,  he  heard  "that  the  luminous 
ring  round  the  moon  was  seen  there,  which  was 
nowhere  visible  but  while  the  eclipse  was  total " ! 
Nine  years  before  Halley  conjectured  that  the  cause 
of  the  corona  or  ring  lay,  "  probably,  in  those  very 
vapours,  which  produce  that  pointed  light,  that  has 
been  observed  lying  in  a  manner  along  the  ecliptic, 
and  that  has  the  sun  for  centre,"  the  zodiacal  light. 

Into  this  traditional  heritage  of  a  lunar  atmosphere 
Herschel  passed,  till  the  blindness  of  unreasoning 
belief  was  dispelled  by  facts.  His  atmosphere  of  the 
moon,  his  three  volcanoes  on  its  surface,  and  its  fitness 
as  a  home  for  life,  similar  to  what  exists  on  the  earth, 
were  long  cherished  beliefs,  that  had  all  to  be  un- 
learned. Had  the  knowledge  acquired  from  the  total 
eclipses  of  the  sun  in  1706  and  1715  not  been  laid  on 
the  shelf  and  forgotten,  he  would  not  have  fallen  into 
these  mistakes.  Unfortunately,  though  twentv-eight 
solar  eclipses  occur  every  eighteen  years  somewhere  on 
earth,  no  total  eclipse  has  been  seen  from  our  island 
since  1715.  A  few  years  passed  away,  and,  in  1792, 
Herschel  came  to  the  conclusion  that  we  "  have  great 
reason  to  surmise  that  the  moon's  atmosphere,"  as  well 
as  that  of  Saturn's  fifth  satellite,  is  "  extremely  rare." 

the  moon's  diameter.  Its  colour  was  quite  white,  not  pearl  colour,  nor 
yellow,  nor  red,  and  the  rays  had  a  vivid  and  flickering  appearance, 
somewhat  like  that  which  a  gas-light  illumination  might  be  supposed 
to  assume  if  formed  into  a  similar  shape  "  (Astron.  Trans,  xv.  p.  5). 

Halley's  account  of  what  he  saw  in  1715  is  as  distinct  and  vivid  as 
that  of  Baily  in  1842.     See  also  Lalande,  ii.  443. 

5 


CHAPTEK   V 

THE   DISCOVERY  OF  URANUS 

THE  third  paper  sent  by  Herschel  to  the  Royal  Society 
was  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Dr.  Watson  from  Mr. 
William  Herschel  of  Bath,  dated  October  18,  1780. 
It  was  a  record  of  observations  made  in  the  three 
years  from  1777  to  1779,  with  the  view  of  determining 
whether  our  day  is  of  the  same  length  year  after  year. 
A  point  so  difficult  could  be  settled,  he  thought,  only 
by  observing  the  length  of  the  day  in  other  planets. 
This  had  been  done,  or  attempted,  for  Venus  and 
Jupiter,  by  watching  the  time  it  took  for  a  spot  on 
the  face  of  the  planet  to  return  to  the  same  position. 
But  in  Venus,  on  account  of  her  exceeding  brilliance, 
it  had  been  done  so  imperfectly  that  her  day  was  put 
down  roughly  as  of  23  hours'  length.  For  Jupiter 
the  time  of  rotation  on  his  axis  was  set  down  more 
precisely  at  9  hours  56  minutes,  a  result  arrived  at 
by  keeping  careful  watch  on  spots  that  may  not  be 
fixed  points  on  his  disc,  but  movable  on  what  we  may 
call  trade-wind  belts  of  clouds  in  his  equator.  These 
spots  "change  so  often  that  it  is  not  easy,  if  at  all 
possible,  to  ascertain  the  identity  of  the  same  appear- 
ance for  any  considerable  length  of  time."  Sometimes 
a  bright,  at  other  times  a  dark  spot,  or  belt,  was 
observed,  but  the  time  of  its  revolution  round  the 


ROTATION  OF  MARS  67 

planet  varied  so  much  that  no  reliance  could  be  placed 
on  the  result  as  a  means  of  ascertaining  whether  our 
day  remains  the  same  from  age  to  age. 

Herschel  considered  the  planet  Mars  a  more  favour- 
able field  for  experiment  than  Jupiter.  On  Mars  he 
saw  spots  of  a  different  nature :  "  Their  constant  and 
determined  shape,  as  well  as  remarkable  colour,  show 
them  to  be  permanent  and  fastened  to  the  body  of 
the  planet.  These  will  give  the  revolution  of  his 
equator  to  a  great  certainty,  and  by  a  great  number 
of  revolutions,  to  a  very  great  exactness  also."  A 
circumstance,  with  which  Herschel  was  not  acquainted, 
materially  helped  him  in  his  observations  on  Mars. 
The  atmosphere  on  that  planet  is  not  nearly  so  dense 
as  the  earth's,  and  similar  trade-wind  belts  to  those 
on  Jupiter  do  not  seem  to  exist.  By  these  means  he 
concluded  that  the  length  of  a  day  on  Mars  is  a  little 
longer  than  our  day,  or  24  hrs.  39  min.  5  sec.1  The 
value  of  an  accurate  measure  of  the  length  of  day 
in  other  planets  he  conceived  to  be  this :  "  Future 
astronomers  may  be  enabled  to  make  some  estimate 
of  the  general  equability  of  the  rotatory  motions  of 
the  planets.  For  if  in  length  of  time  they  should 
perceive  some  small  retardation  in  the  diurnal  motion 
of  a  planet,  occasioned  by  some  resistance  of  a  very 
subtle  medium  in  which  the  heavenly  bodies  perhaps 
move,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  if  there  should  be  found 
an  acceleration  from  some  cause  or  other,  they  might 
then  ascribe  the  alteration  either  to  the  diurnal  motion 
of  the  earth,  or  to  the  gyration  of  the  other  planet, 
according  as  circumstances,  or  observed  phenomena, 

1  Time  of  rotation  determined  since  Herschel's  days,  24  hrs.  37  min. 
227  sees. 


68  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

should  make  one  or  the  other  of  these  opinions  most 
probable."  This  man  could  think,  could  reason  and 
observe :  he  had  also  unusual  powers  of  imagination : 
but  he  was  only  beginning  his  travels  through  the 
infinitudes  of  space  and  time. 

Three  papers  for  the  Royal  Society  in  the  course 
of  ten  months !  The  musician  of  Bath  puts  himself 
at  once  on  a  level  with  the  first  men  of  science  in 
the  kingdom.  He  is  modest,  but  he  has  in  him  the 
confidence  of  true  genius.  In  his  retirement  he  had 
been  collecting  facts  from  the  heavens  for  six  or  seven 
years.  A  chance  of  speaking  out  what  he  saw  and 
had  gathered  together  was  presented  to  him.  He 
seized  it  with  all  eagerness,  and  was  making  his  voice 
heard.  In  these  papers  he  has  been  speaking  to  the 
Royal  Society,  of  which  he  was  not  even  a  member. 
When  he  speaks  next,  about  three  months  after,  it  is 
not  as  the  musician  of  Bath,  but  as  a  member  of  the 
Royal  Society ;  and  he  speaks  to  the  whole  world  and 
to  all  time.  This  paper,  which  was  read  on  April  26, 
1781,  and  is  headed  "Account  of  a  Cornet,"  was  really 
the  beginning  of  modern  astronomy.  It  fills  only  ten 
pages  of  the  Transactions. 

He  had  been  engaged  for  some  time  in  an  attempt, 
not  altogether  novel,  but  certainly  demanding  great 
labour,  to  find  out  the  distance  of  the  fixed  stars. 
His  thoughts  and  plans  were  high,  for  though 
more  than  a  century  has  passed  since  then,  the  dis- 
tances of  not  more  than  twenty  or  thirty  out  of 
many  millions  can  be  said  to  be  known,  or  perhaps 
safely  guessed.  While  thus  engaged,  rummaging 
among  the  stars,  "on  Tuesday,  13th  March,  between 
ten  and  eleven  in  the  evening,  he  perceived  a  star,  in 


DISCOVERY  OF  A  SUPPOSED  COMET     69 

the  neighbourhood  of  H  Geminorum,  that  appeared 
visibly  larger  than  the  rest.  Being  struck  with  its 
uncommon  magnitude,  he  compared  it  to  H  Gemin- 
orum and  the  small  star  in  the  quartile  between 
Auriga  and  Gemini,  and  finding  it  so  much  larger 
than  either  of  them,  suspected  it  to  be  a  comet.  .  .  . 
The  sequel  has  shown  that  my  surmises  were  well 
founded,  this  proving  to  be  the  comet  we  have  lately 
observed."  By  the  method  he  followed  he  was  "  en- 
abled to  distinguish  the  quantity  and  direction  of  the 
motion  of  this  comet  in  a  single  day,  to  a  much 
greater  degree  of  exactness  than  could  have  been  done 
in  so  short  a  time  by  a  sector  or  transit  instrument ; 
nay,  even  an  hour  or  two  were  intervals  long  enough 
to  show  that  it  was  a  moving  body,  and,  consequently, 
had  its  size  not  pointed  it  out  as  a  comet,  the  change 
of  place,  though  so  trifling  as  2J  seconds  per  hour, 
would  have  been  sufficient  to  occasion  the  discovery." 
Satisfied  that  he  had  done  all  he  could  do,  Herschel 
concluded  his  paper  by  saying,  "  I  failed  not  to  give 
immediate  notice  of  this  moving  star,  and  was  happy 
to  surrender  it  to  the  care  of  the  Astronomer-Royal 
and  others,  as  soon  as  I  found  they  had  begun  their 
observations  upon  it."  The  moving  star  was  not  a 
comet.  It  was  a  wanderer,  who  had  been  seen  before 
and  classified  as  a  fixed  star.  The  planet  was  what 
is  now  called  Uranus. 

The  announcement  of  the  discovery  sent  a  flutter 
of  excitement  through  all  the  observatories  of  Europe, 
which  went  on  increasing  when  it  was  found  that 
they  could  not  agree  on  what  or  who  the  stranger  was. 
Almost  from  its  first  appearance  English  astronomers 
believed  it  to  be  a  planet  that  had  long  been  wanted 


70  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

to  account  for  difficulties  in  their  art.  The  French 
astronomers  held  to  their  faith  in  a  comet  moving 
round  the  sun  in  an  orbit  nearly  circular.  Herschel, 
praised  everywhere  as  an  observer  "  of  great  ardour 
and  ingenuity,"  stood  aside  from  the  friendly  strife. 
All  observers  were  in  debt  to  Bode,  who  found  that 
a  star,  marked  No.  964  in  Mayer's  catalogue,  had  been 
observed  by  him  in  1756,  had  then  been  lost  sight  of, 
and  was  probably  the  stranger.  Abbe  Boscovich  is 
said  to  have  been  the  first  to  prove  that  the  orbit 
was  an  ellipse ;  but  to  Lexell,  Professor  of  Astronomy 
at  St.  Petersburg,  is  assigned  the  honour  of  showing 
that  the  newly  found  body  was  not  a  comet,  but  a 
planet,  distant  from  the  sun  about  nineteen  times  as 
far  as  the  earth.1  All  with  a  name  for  science,  from 
Laplace  downward,  took  part  in  the  friendly  strife. 

It  has  been  said  that  this  discovery  was  an  accident ; 
it  has  been  also  said  that,  if  Herschel  had  not  made 
it  at  the  time  he  did,  some  other  observer  would  before 
long  have  had  the  luck  to  fall  in  with  the  stranger. 
These  criticisms  are  not  creditable  to  those  by  whom 
they  were  made.  Call  it  accident  or  chance,  the  fact 
remains  that  this  novice,  looking  out  for  what  he 
could  find  in  the  heavens,  and  with  instruments  im- 
proved by  himself,  discovered  an  unknown  planet,  and 
extended  the  boundaries  of  the  solar  system  to  twice 
the  distance  that  had  been  received  for  thousands  of 
years.  Such  accidents  bring  fame,  and  are  only  called 
luck  by  the  envious. 

One  of  the  last-found  planets  of  our  solar  system 
was  discovered  about  a  year  ago,  also  by  accident,  but 
to  the  great  honour  of  the  discoverer.  He  was  looking 
1  Robison,  Edin.,  Phil  Trans,  i.  305. 


HOW  EROS  WAS  DISCOVERED         71 

for  something  else;  he  found  what  he  was  looking 
for,  and  a  new  planet  besides.  What  he  was  looking 
for  was  one  of  the  so-called  nuisances  of  the  heavens, 
an  asteroid,  one  of  about  450,  named  433d.  To  search 
for  it  as  Herschel  had  to  do,  even  though  its  where- 
abouts was  known,  called  for  labour  and  time.  The 
astronomer,  who  was  on  the  lookout  for  it,  lessened 
both  by  exposing  a  photographic  plate  to  the  starry 
sky.  He  was  spreading  a  net  to  catch  planets  and 
comets.  A  fixed  star  does  not  change  its  place  during 
the  exposure  of  the  plate,  or,  rather,  the  plate  moves 
as  the  star  moves:  a  moving  body,  be  it  planet  or 
comet,  does  change  its  place.  A  point  will  thus  repre- 
sent a  fixed  star ;  a  line,  however  short,  and  however 
faint  the  trace,  represents  a  moving  body.  When 
Herr  Witt  examined  the  exposed  plate,  he  saw  at 
once  the  trace  left  by  the  asteroid  he  was  in  search 
of;  but  another,  a  fainter  and  a  longer  trace  of  a 
moving  body,  was  also  seen  on  the  plate.  It  was  the 
trace  of  a  planet  hitherto  unknown.  An  examination 
of  the  stranger  resulted  in  the  discovery  that  he  was 
a  ball  twenty  miles  in  diameter,  and,  excepting  our 
moon,  the  nearest  of  the  planets  to  us,  so  near  that 
he  may  be  made  to  tell  us  the  exact  distance  we  are 
from  the  sun.  His  discoverer  called  him  Eros,  Love  or 
Cupid,  evidently  from  his  childish  size.1  Herschel  had 
no  such  short-cuts  to  discovery  in  his  day. 

An  immense  impulse  was  given  to  the  study  of  the 
stars  by  Herschel's  discovery.  It  was  not  merely 
what  he  achieved  by  being  on  the  spot  and  on  the 
lookout.  It  was  also  by  the  lesson  he  taught  astro- 
nomers to  do  as  he  did.  A  band  of  twenty-four 

1  Nineteenth  Century,  April  1899,  p.  612. 


72  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

observers,  suspecting,  and  with  good  reason,  that  a 
well-kept  watch  would  reveal  unknown  wonders  in 
the  depths  of  space,  undertook  to  search  for  other 
planets.  Had  photographic  plates  or  charts  then  been 
part  of  the  equipment  of  an  observatory,  the  work 
would  have  been  easy,  and  the  reward  certain.  But 
plates  and  star -charts  were  not  known;  and  the 
twenty  -  four  workers  laboured  and  toiled  in  vain. 
An  outsider  carried  off  first  honours  on  the  first  day 
of  the  century — Piazzi  of  Palermo,  who  had  visited 
Slough,  had  talked  with  Herschel  and  his  sister,  and 
perhaps  drawn  a  breath  of  inspiration  from  them 
and  their  surroundings.  The  beaten  twenty-four 
astronomers  did  not  retire  from  the  field.  Two  years 
later,  Dr.  Olbers,  of  Bremen,  discovered  another  asteroid, 
Pallas;  and  two  years  later  still,  Harding,  in  the 
same  neighbourhood,  discovered  a  third,  Juno.  Olbers, 
wisely  using  imagination  in  the  pursuit  of  science, 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  these  small  bodies  were 
pieces  of  a  planet  which  had  burst  or  exploded,  and 
that  other  pieces  would  be  found  floating  about  in 
space.  He  acted  on  the  idea,  and  rediscovered  Piazzi's 
Ceres,  which  had  been  lost  again,  as  well  as  a  fourth 
asteroid,  Vesta.  Then  the  hunt  for  more  pieces  of  the 
disrupted  planet  ceased,  till,  about  forty  years  later,  it 
again  received  a  fresh  impetus  from  Hencke's  discovery 
of  Astrsea,  and  was  continued  by  Mr.  Hind  at  the 
Regent  Park  Observatory  in  London,  and  others,  with 
such  success  that  floating  pieces  have  been  netted  by 
hundreds,  grumbled  at  as  nuisances,  and  assigned  the 
honour  of  having  been  thrown  off  direct  by  the  sun 
himself,  not  blown  into  space  by  a  disrupted  planet. 
One  of  these  pigmy  planets  was  named  Lucre ti a,  after 


LETTER  TO  SIR  JOSEPH  BANKS       73 

HerscheFs  sister.      Such  were  some  of  the  fruits  of 
William  Herschel's  earliest  studies  among  the  stars. 

The  nature  of  the  wandering  stranger  discovered  on 
March  13,  1781,  was  not  fully  known  for  some  months. 
Herschel  had  surrendered  the  care  of  his  new  world  to 
the  astronomers  of  Europe,  and  they  could  not  make 
up  their  minds  about  it,  till  Lexell  of  St.  Petersburg  led 
the  way  by  showing  that  it  was  an  outlying  primary 
planet.  A  whole  year  elapsed,  and  Herschel  had 
resumed  his  observations  on  this  "  singular  star " 
before  he  thought  of  giving  it  a  name.  Events  had 
happened  during  the  interval  which  affected  his  view 
of  the  name  it  should  bear:  he  had  become  Royal 
Astronomer  to  George  ill.,  had  received  from  him  a 
yearly  pension,  was  pursuing  a  profitable  trade  as  a 
maker  of  telescopes  under  the  King's  patronage,  and 
was  housed  under  the  shelter  of  Windsor  Castle.  It 
should  cause  no  surprise,  therefore,  that,  evidently  after 
long  consideration,  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to 
Sir  Joseph  Banks,  President  of  the  Royal  Society : — 

"To  SIR  JOSEPH  BANKS,  BART.,  P.R.S. 

"Sin, — By  the  observations  of  the  most  eminent 
astronomers  in  Europe  it  appears  that  the  new  star, 
which  I  had  the  honour  of  pointing  out  to  them  in 
March  1781,  is  a  primary  planet  of  our  solar  system. 
A  body  so  nearly  related  to  us  by  its  similar  condition 
and  situation,  in  the  unbounded  expanse  of  the  starry 
heavens,  must  often  be  the  subject  of  the  conversation, 
not  only  of  astronomers,  but  of  every  lover  of  science 
in  general.  This  consideration  then  makes  it  necessary 
to  give  it  a  name,  whereby  it  may  be  distinguished 
from  the  rest  of  the  planets  and  fixed  stars. 


74  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

"In  the  fabulous  ages  of  ancient  times  the  appellations 
of  Mercury,  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn  were 
given  to  the  planets  as  being  the  names  of  their 
principal  heroes  and  divinities.1  In  the  present  more 
philosophical  8era,  it  would  hardly  be  allowable  to 
have  recourse  to  the  same  method,  and  call  on  Juno, 
Pallas,  Apollo,  or  Minerva  for  a  name  to  our  new 
heavenly  body.  The  first  consideration  in  any  par- 
ticular event,  or  remarkable  incident,  seems  to  be  its 
chronology :  if  in  any  future  age  it  should  be  asked, 
when  this  last- found  planet  was  discovered  ?  it  would 
be  a  very  satisfactory  answer  to  say, '  In  the  Reign  of 
King  George  the  Third.'  As  a  philosopher  then,  the 
name  of  GEORGIUM  SIDUS  presents  itself  to  me,  as  an 
appellation  which  will  conveniently  convey  the  in- 
formation of  the  time  and  country  where  and  when  it 
was  brought  to  view.  But  as  a  subject  of  the  best  of 
Kings,  who  is  the  liberal  protector  of  every  art  and 
science ; — as  a  native  of  the  country  from  whence  this 
Illustrious  Family  was  called  to  the  British  throne ; — 
as  a  member  of  that  Society,  which  flourishes  by  the 
distinguished  liberality  of  its  Royal  Patron ; — and, 
last  of  all,  as  a  person  now  more  immediately  under 
the  protection  of  this  excellent  Monarch,  and  owing 
everything  to  His  unlimited  bounty; — I  cannot  but 
wish  to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  sense 
of  gratitude,  by  giving  the  name  Georgium  Sidus, 

'  Georgium  Sidus 
— jam  nunc  assuesce  vocari'  (Virg.  Georg.), 

to  a  star,  which  (with  respect  to  us)  first  began  to 
shine  under  His  auspicious  reign. 

1  Herschel  might  have  known  better  than  write  this :  see  M.  de 
Lalande's  Astronomy,  sees.  639,  640. 


NAMING  OF  THE  NEW  PLANET        75 

"  By  addressing  this  letter  to  you,  Sir,  as  President 
of  the  Royal  Society,  I  take  the  most  effectual  method 
of  communicating  that  name  to  the  Literati  of  Europe 
which  I  hope  they  will  receive  with  pleasure.  I  have 
the  honour  to  be,  with  the  greatest  respect,  etc., 

"W.  HERSCHEL." 

When  Herschel  discovered  the  planet  Uranus  he  had 
received  no  favour  and  no  bounty  from  King  or 
people.  Nor  did  the  King  extend  his  patronage  to 
him  till  fifteen  months  had  elapsed.  Galileo  was  in 
receipt  of  a  handsome  allowance  from  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Tuscany,  when  he  discovered  the  satellites  of  Jupiter, 
and  called  them  the  Medicean  Stars.  It  was  not  only 
pardonable  to  do  this ;  it  was  most  natural.  But  science 
refused  to  endorse  the  flattery :  and  scientific  men, 
especially  on  the  Continent,  were  equally  unwilling  to 
accept  the  name  proposed  by  Herschel  for  the  newly 
discovered  planet.  For  many  years  it  continued  to  be 
called  the  Georgian  Star,  or  the  Georgium  Sidus,  in  this 
country,  though  not  without  strong  protests.  While 
scientific  men  in  Britain  allowed  that  "George  the 
Third  has  many  titles  to  be  remembered  by  the  friends 
of  science,  to  which  few  of  his  contemporaries  have 
any  pretensions,"  they  maintained,  "  We  shall  therefore 
do  well  to  anticipate  the  decision  of  posterity,  by  at 
once  adopting  a  term  that  must  ultimately  prevail." 
No  one  thinks  of  perpetuating  the  name  Georgian  now. 
Uranus  has  displaced  it,  and  justly.  The  judgment  of 
posterity  has  gone  against  the  name  proposed  by  the 
discoverer  and  that  of  Herschel,  generously  proposed 
by  Lalande.  Heathenism  and  antiquity  have  carried 
the  day.  Everyone  must  decide  for  himself  whether 


76  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

this  was  right,  or  whether  the  same  rule  should  hold 
among  the  stars  as  has  been  allowed  to  hold  on  earth, 
where  an  adventurer  gives  his  name  to  a  New  World, 
and  the  real  discoverer  has  to  rest  content  with  naming 
a  province  of  it,  perhaps  a  province  of  little  worth. 

In  writing  this  letter  to  the  President  of  the  Royal 
Society,  William  Herschel  could  plead  more  grounds 
for  justification  than  we  might  be  disposed,  at  first 
sight,  to  allow.  That  he  was  recognised  by  the  King 
as  a  discoverer  and  a  leader  of  thought  was  a  great 
honour,  recommending  him  at  once  to  the  nation  and 
to  the  whole  world.  That  he  was  paid  a  salary  out  of 
the  King's  or  the  nation's  purse,  and  was  placed  by  the 
King  near  the  palace  and  brought  into  close  relations 
with  the  Royal  Family  is  also  manifest.  We  are 
bound  to  give  due  weight  to  these  considerations  in 
the  mind  of  an  upright  and  honourable  man,  who 
deeply  respected  his  sovereign,  and  knew  best  the 
amount  of  his  own  indebtedness.  But  history  tells 
more  than  one  story,  that  goes  far  to  justify  Herschel's 
name  for  the  newly  discovered  star.  It  was  not  an 
uncommon  thing  to  exalt  an  earthly  prince  to  a  throne 
in  earthly  skies.  Probably  we  shall  all  admit  that  this 
was  a  mistake,  perhaps  a  degradation  of  true  science, 
which  knows  no  distinction  between  king  and  beggar, 
and  whose  boundaries  have  been  extended,  to  quote 
the  words  of  Galileo,  a  hundred  thousand  fold  by 
those  whom  popes  and  princes  despised.  But  the 
fact  is  beyond  dispute.  The  hair  of  Berenice,  the 
Queen  of  Egypt  and  the  murderess  of  the  lover  by 
whom  she  was  slighted,  was  carried  off  from  the 
temple  of  Venus,  to  whom  it  was  vowed,  and  placed  by 
Conon  as  a  constellation  among  the  stars.  Sobieski, 


STARS  NAMED  AFTER  KINGS          77 

the  valiant  deliverer  of  Eastern  Europe  from  the 
Turkish  power,  got  a  similar  honour  done  him  by 
Hevelius  in  the  then  invented  constellation  called 
Sobieski's  Shield.  Galileo  felt  himself  under  such 
obligations  to  the  ducal  house  of  Tuscany  that  he 
named  the  four  moons  of  Jupiter,  which  he  discovered, 
the  Medicean  Stars,  a  name  they  long  continued  to 
bear.  The  honour  of  a  place  in  the  heavens  was 
great.  It  was  also  much  sought  after,  so  much  so 
that  Galileo  was  told  "  he  would  do  a  thing  just  and 
proper  in  itself,  and  at  the  same  time  render  himself 
rich  and  powerful  for  ever,"  if  he  "  named  the  next 
star  which  he  should  discover  after  the  name  of  the 
great  star  of  France,  as  well  as  the  most  brilliant  of 
all  the  world,"  Henry  of  Navarre.  Fortunately,  in  this 
respect  at  least,  he  had  not  the  chance,  otherwise  we 
might  have  had  the  starry  heavens  peopled  with  the 
princely  nonentities  of  earth.  Royer,  in  1679,  did  a 
similar  honour  to  Louis  xiv.,  by  forming  a  constella- 
tion, called  The  Sceptre,  for  that  monarch's  glory ; 
Messier,  after  the  astronomer  of  that  name,  was 
another  recently  invented  constellation  on  which 
Boscovich  made  the  lines — 

"  Sidera,  non  Messes,  Messerius  iste  tuetur ; 
Certe  erat  ille  suo  dignus  inesse  polo." 

But  no  one  would  have  expected  a  man  of  science  so 
famous  as  Edmund  Halley,  to  invent  a  constellation  in 
honour  of  Charles  II.,  The  Oak,  in  memory  of  his 
escape  after  Worcester,  or  that  Flamsteed  would  have 
placed  so  rotten  a  thing  as  the  "  Heart  of  Charles  II." 
among  the  stars.1 

1  Lalande,  i.  283,  284. 


78  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

While  we  are  satisfied  that  there  is  no  ground  for 
finding  fault  with  Herschel's  name  for  the  new  planet 
he  discovered,  we  are  more  satisfied  that,  by  the  mouth 
of  Bode,  the  jury,  to  whom  he  required  to  appeal, 
disallowed  the  flattery,  and  called  the  planet  Uranus, 
not  even  Herschel,  as  Lalande  proposed.  The  next 
planet  that  was  discovered,  the  first  of  the  asteroids, 
was  named  by  its  discoverer  Ceres  Ferdinandea 
after  a  contemptible  King  of  Naples,  but  Ceres  has 
long  since  swallowed  Ferdinandea  up.  Even  at  the 
time  an  amused  cynicism,  speaking  in  the  Letters 
of  Horace  Walpole,  was  saying,  "  Must  not  that  host 
of  worlds  be  christened  ?  Mr.  Herschel  himself  has 
stood  godfather  for  His  Majesty  to  the  new  Sidus. 
His  Majesty  has  a  numerous  issue;  but  they  and  all 
the  princes  and  princesses  in  Europe  cannot  supply 
appellations  enough  for  twenty  millions  of  new-born 
stars."  ! 

In  the  year  1782  Herschel  not  only  continued  to 
prosecute  the  studies  he  had  begun,  but  ventured  into 
new  and  almost  untrodden  fields  of  research.  Two  or 
three  months  were  cut  out  of  the  working  time  of  that 
year  by  a  summons  to  Windsor  to  see  the  King  and 
hear  what  he  might  do  for  him.  But  his  activity  and 
enjoyment  in  work  made  up  for  lost  time.  In  1780  he 
contributed  two  papers,  or  twenty-five  large  pages,  to 
the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  ; 
in  1781  he  contributed  two  papers,  or  thirty-five  pages ; 
and  in  1782,  notwithstanding  the  loss  of  two  months, 
four  papers,  or  nearly  one  hundred  pages — a  good 
year's  scientific  work  for  any  man,  more  especially  for 
one  who  was  giving  thirty  or  even  thirty-eight  music 
1  Letters,  vi.  259. 


DOUBLE  STARS :  DISTANCES  OF  STARS  79 

lessons  to  his  pupils  per  week ;  groaning  and  fretting 
under  the  incapacity  of  not  a  few  of  them — a  man  who 
had  to  be  in  his  place  conducting  a  band  or  a  concert, 
and  supervising  a  church's  music,  or  who,  instead  of 
seeking  rest  in  sleep,  when  the  day's  weary  work 
was  done,  would  often  spend  the  night  in  observing 
the  stars.  His  sister,  who  was  his  invariable  com- 
panion in  these  night  watches,  had  ample  reason  to 
say  of  him,  "  He  did  in  one  season  more  than  anyone 
else  could  have  done,  and  would  have  resumed  the 
hunt  [for  Saturn's  satellites]  the  next  fifteen  years,  if 
nothing  had  interfered." 

The  new  path  on  which  he  entered,  and  which  led 
him  into  other  and  most  attractive  fields  of  inquiry, 
was  the  distance  of  what  are  called  the  fixed  stars 
from  the  solar  system.  He  knew  that  at  the  distance 
of  the  nearest  of  them,  twice  the  sun's  distance  from 
the  earth,  immense  though  it  seems,  appears  no  bigger 
than  a  needle  point,  and  cannot  be  used  as  a  base  line 
for  measurement,  or,  indeed,  as  a  line  at  all.  He  gave 
up  the  thought  of  attempting  to  solve  the  problem 
from  that,  the  most  natural  and  the  easiest  side.  It 
was  good  for  neighbours  so  near  us  as  Mars  and  Venus. 
It  was  useless  for  Sirius  or  Arcturus.  Following, 
perhaps,  the  example  of  Galileo,  he  believed  that 
observations  on  stars  so  close  together  that  neither 
the  naked  eye  nor  ordinary  telescopes  could  separate 
them,  and  make  two  out  of  one,  would  lead  to  a 
discovery  of  their  distance.  He  did  not  succeed  in  his 
purpose,  but  he  was  "  introduced  to  a  new  series  of 
observations  and  discoveries."  He  resolved  to  examine 
every  star  in  the  heavens  with  the  utmost  attention 
and  a  very  high  power,  that  he  might  collect  such 


8o  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

materials  for  this  research  as  would  enable  him  to  fix 
his  observations  upon  those  that  would  best  answer 
his  end.  The  subject  promises  so  rich  a  harvest  that 
he  cannot  help  inviting  every  lover  of  astronomy  to 
join  him  in  observations  that  must  inevitably  lead 
to  new  discoveries.  He  took  some  pains  to  find  out 
what  double  stars  had  been  recorded  by  astronomers ; 
but  "  Nature,  that  great  volume,  appeared  to  him  to 
contain  the  best  catalogue  upon  this  occasion." 

The  results  of  this  search  of  the  heavens  appeared  a 
month  later  in  a  Catalogue  of  Double  Stars.  They 
were  "not  only  double  stars,  but  also  treble,  double- 
double,  quadruple,  double-treble,  and  multiple."  And 
he  noticed,  in  a  strangely  prophetic  vein  of  inspired 
imagination,  not  shrined  in  the  temple  of  fact  for  more 
than  twenty  years  after,  "  It  is  much  too  soon  to  form 
any  theories  of  small  stars  revolving  round  large  ones." 
Of  269  of  the  suns  contained  in  this  catalogue  only 
42  had  been  previously  observed.  While  pursuing 
researches  so  laborious  and  so  delightful,  he  was 
driven  to  devise  ingenious  improvements  on  the 
micrometer,  as  the  contrivance  was  called  that  is  used 
for  measuring  small  spaces.  But  Herschel's  thoughts 
were  turned  into  other  channels  in  the  summer  of 
1782.  He  was  raising  questions  we  are  only  getting 
answers  to  now. 

While  Herschel  was  thus  rapidly  rising  into  fame, 
he  was  not  forgetful  of  the  sister  who  generously 
sacrificed  her  own  wishes  and  prospects  as  a  singer 
to  advance  his  as  an  astronomer.  During  the  time 
she  was  free  from  her  numerous  engagements  as  the 
thrifty  housekeeper,  the  careful  secretary  and  time- 
keeper, the  reviser  and  reducer  of  observations,  she 


CAROLINE  HERSCHEL'S  EIGHT  COMETS  81 

amused  herself  by  sweeping  the  heavens  for  comets 
with  a  five-feet  reflector,  of  which  her  brother  had 
made  her  a  present.  She  was  so  successful  that  her 
fame  soon  sounded  over  Europe.  "  Miss  Herschel,"  one 
writer  reports,  "  sister  of  the  celebrated  astronomer, 
has  observed  a  comet,  and  its  orbit  has  been  calculated. 
This  is  the  seventy-third  comet  of  which  we  know 
the  period."  This  celestial  visitor  was  talked  of  in 
Windsor  Castle  as  the  Lady's  Comet.  Unfortunately, 
the  name  was  not  retained,  as  it  ought  to  have  been, 
or  at  least  given  to  a  later  discovery  by  Miss  Herschel. 
Between  1786  and  1797  she  discovered  eight  comets 
altogether,  but  of  only  five  was  she  the  first  discoverer. 
The  seventh,  seen  by  her  on  November  7,  1795,  was 
specially  worthy  of  this  name,  but  is  now  known  as 
Encke's  Comet.  Her  value  as  an  assistant  to  her 
brother,  besides  her  own  personal  merit  as  a  woman 
of  science,  got  for  her  a  pension  of  £50  from  the  Civil 
List,  granted  to  the  King  by  Parliament.  It  was 
sufficient  for  the  modest  wants  of  a  woman  who  not 
only  handled  a  telescope  with  the  dexterity  of  a 
practised  observer,  but,  when  sixty  years  of  age,  spent 
some  of  the  last  days  of  her  stay  at  Slough  "  in  paint- 
ing and  papering  the  rooms  she  was  to  occupy  in  a 
small  house  of  her  brother's,  attached  to  the  Crown 
Inn,  to  which  she  removed." 

Year  after  year,  from  1780  to  1812,  the  active  mind 
and  the  prolific  pen  of  William  Herschel  enriched  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  with  one  or  more 
papers,  which  astonished  the  world  of  science  and 
attracted  the  attention  of  mankind.  The  years  1813, 
1816  were  blanks,  but  1814,  1815,  1817,  and  1818 
showed  no  feebling  of  hand  or  eye,  although  for  years 
6 


82  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

his  strength  had  been  failing  under  the  pressure  of 
burdens  laid  on  him  as  King's  Astronomer — unnecessary 
burdens.  Without  including  the  diagrams,  often  in 
themselves  a  heavy  labour,  these  papers  are  spread 
over  two  thousand  quarto  pages,  an  extraordinary 
record  of  hard,  honest,  earnest  work.  His  first  two 
papers  were  said  to  be  "  communicated  by  Dr.  Watson, 
Jr.,  of  Bath,  F.R.S.,  and  written  by  Mr.  William 
Herschel  of  Bath."  The  same  designation  of  the 
astronomer  appears  again  in  the  Proceedings  for 
1*781 ;  but  in  the  end  of  the  year  it  is  replaced  by 
Mr.  Herschel,  F.R.S.  In  1783-84-85  we  find,  William 
Herschel,  Esq.,  F.R.S.  But  from  1786,  the  year  in 
which  he  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  the 
University  of  Edinburgh,1  to  1815,  the  style  is, 
William  Herschel,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  In  1817,  1818,  it 
becomes  Sir  William  Herschel,  Knt.  Guelp.,  LL.D., 
F.R.S.  The  musician  of  Bath  had  made  good  his 
right  to  rank  with  the  noblest  and  the  most  learned 
of  men. 

1  Professor  Holden,  in  his  Life,  writes  (p.  47) :  "It  was  only  in  1786 
that  he  became  'Dr.  Herschel,' through  the  Oxford  degree  of  LL.D." 
This  Oxford  degree  of  LL.D.  has  of  late  been  changed  in  his  case  into 
D.C.L.  The  Oxford  "Catalogue  of  all  graduates  .  .  .  between  Oct. 
10,  1659,  and  Dec.  31,  1850,"  does  not  contain  his  name,  except  as  the 
father  of  Sir  John  Herschel,  on  whom  the  degree  of  D.C.L.  was 
conferred.  The  date  of  the  Edinburgh  degree  is  April  10,  1786,  and 
is  the  only  ground  I  can  discover  for  the  title  LL.D.,  that  he  takes  in 
all  his  papers  from  1786  to  1818.  The  honour  of  LL.D.  from  Oxford 
was  first  claimed  for  Herschel  in  1798-9.  See  Public  Characters,  i.  396. 


CHAPTER  VI 

ENDOWMENT  OF  EESEARCH 

IT  was  clear  to  men  of  science  that  something  had  to 
be  done  for  Herschel.  He  could  not  toil  or  slave  as  a 
teacher  of  music  and  a  conductor  of  concerts  during 
the  working  hours  of  the  day,  and  improve  the  tele- 
scope or  keep  watch  on  the  stars  by  night,  without 
discredit  to  a  nation  that  was  proud  of  its  maritime 
supremacy,  and  offered  a  large  reward  for  the  best 
means  of  finding  the  longitude  at  sea.  Since  the 
discovery  of  Uranus,  his  name  was  in  everybody's 
mouth,  especially  in  Bath.  People  of  celebrity,  with 
or  without  introductions,  came  to  see  him.  Among 
them  was  the  Astronomer-Eoyal,  Dr.  Maskelyne,  who 
proved  a  steady  and  admiring  friend.  At  their  first 
interview,  Caroline  thought  they  were  quarrelling. 
Eagerness  to  make  sure  that  this  musician  was  a 
reality,  not  a  sham,  may  account  for  the  high  tone  of 
voice  that  sounded  to  her  like  quarrelling,  while  her 
brother's  remark  when  Maskelyne  left,  "That  is  a 
devil  of  a  fellow,"  reads  more  like  a  compliment  than  a 
censure.  Dr.  Watson,  between  whom  and  Herschel  a 
friendship  had  sprung  up,  that  lasted  for  the  remainder 
of  a  long  life,  was  constantly  at  his  house,  helping  to 
grind  or  polish,  offering  money  to  meet  expenses,  which 
was  gently  declined,  and  communicating  papers  and 

83 


84  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

letters  from  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  President  of  the  Royal 
Society.  Herschel  was  rapidly  outgrowing  his  sur- 
roundings. The  dullest  eye  could  see  that  something 
had  to  be  done  for  the  honour  of  the  country. 
Herschel,  though  resident  in  England,  was  not  an 
Englishman ;  but  he  was  a  subject  of  the  King  of 
England  as  Elector  of  Hanover,  and  the  nation  that 
reaped  the  honour,  it  might  soon  come  to  be  the  profit, 
of  his  discoveries,  was  bound  to  mark  its  sense  of  the 
value  it  set  upon  his  presence  within  its  borders.  The 
Royal  Society  did  what  they  could,  but  it  was  far 
from  enough.  As  they  honoured  Benjamin  Franklin 
with  the  Copley  Medal  in  1753  for  "curious  experi- 
ments and  observations  on  electricity,"  so  they  showed 
their  high  regard  for  William  Herschel  by  awarding 
the  same  medal  to  him  in  November  1781  for  his 
"  discovery  of  a  new  and  singular  star."  On  Decem- 
ber 6  of  that  year  he  was  also  elected  a  Fellow  of 
the  Society.  But  these  honours  did  not  meet  the  case. 
They  were  prizes  won  in  the  race  for  fame ;  they  did 
not  provide  a  living  or  leisure  for  further  triumphs. 
But  the  King  personally  was  bound  to  interpose.  He 
had  a  name  throughout  Europe  for  love  of  science,  and 
especially  of  astronomy,  which  no  other  monarch  en- 
joyed. A  great  French  writer  described  him,  long 
before  Herschel  appeared  above  the  horizon,  as  "  veri- 
tablement  amateur  de  la  Physique  et  de  1' Astronomic." 
For  years  he  had  supported  an  observatory  and  a  King's 
Astronomer  at  Richmond.  Parliament  had  provided 
ample  funds  in  the  form  of  a  Civil  List,  of  which  at  that 
time  it  got  no  account.  But  the  funds  were  squandered 
or  spent  with  such  a  lavish  hand  that  enormous  arrears 
remained  unpaid.  Apparently  the  King  was  helpless. 


OPINION  ON   HERSCHEL'S  MERITS     85 

Public  opinion  outside  of  scientific  circles  had  also 
something  to  say  about  Herschel,  for  he  had  become 
a  power  and  a  wonder  in  the  country.  "  Mr.  Herschel's 
astronomical  papers,"  it  said,  "have  justly  excited 
peculiar  attention;  and  his  account  of  a  comet,  or, 
perhaps,  a  new  planet,  hath  procured  for  him  the 
honour  of  Sir  Godfrey  Copley's  Medal.  Mr.  Herschel, 
who  is  a  musician  at  Bath,  is  one  of  those  extraordin- 
ary men,  whose  genius  for  astronomy  and  whose  talents 
for  the  improvement  of  instruments  have  enabled  him 
to  break  through  every  disadvantage  of  situation,  and 
to  make  discoveries  which,  as  they  call  for  the  warmest 
approbation  of  mankind,  ought  to  obtain  for  him  a 
more  than  common  encouragement  and  patronage."1 
A  year  later  the  same  organ  of  public  opinion  wrote : 
"  Mr.  Herschel,  of  whom  we  spoke  in  our  last  volume, 
hath  carried  on  his  astronomical  researches  with  amaz- 
ing success.  He  hath  discovered  a  great  number  of 
double  and  triple  stars,  which  are  surprisingly  and 
beautifully  diversified  in  their  appearance  and  their 
colours.  The  new  star  or  comet,  for  the  discovery 
of  which  he  obtained  the  Gold  Medal  in  1781,  is  now, 
without  controversy,  ascertained  by  him  to  be  a  regular 
primary  planet,  beyond  the  orbit  of  Saturn.  He  hath 
given  it  the  name  of  the  Georgium  Sidus,  in  honour 
of  the  King,  who  hath  settled  a  handsome  salary  upon 
him  and  taken  him  into  his  immediate  service.  This 
instance  of  Royal  patronage  and  munificence  to  eminent 
scientific  merit  is  equally  glorious  to  His  Majesty  and 
to  Mr.  Herschel."  2 

The   instincts   of  the  writer  were  correct,  but  his 

1  Annual  Register  for  1781  [118]. 

2  Annual  Register,  1782  [219]. 


86  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

knowledge   of   "the   handsome   salary"   was   perhaps 
defective. 

"  Among  the  Bath  visitors  were  many  philosophical 
gentlemen,  who  used  to  frequent  the  levees  at  St. 
James's  when  in  town.  Colonel  Walsh,1  in  particular, 
informed  my  brother  that  from  a  conversation  he  had 
had  with  His  Majesty,  it  appeared  that  in  the  spring 
he  was  to  come  with  his  seven-foot  telescope  to  the 
King.  Similar  reports  he  received  from  many  others, 
but  they  made  no  great  impression  nor  caused  any 
interruption  in  his  occupation  or  study,"  till  "  one 
morning  in  Passion  Week,  as  Sir  William  Watson  was 
with  my  brother,  talking  about  the  pending  journey 
to  town,  my  eldest  nephew  arrived  to  pay  us  a  visit, 
and  brought  the  confirmation  that  his  uncle  was  ex- 
pected with  his  instrument  in  town."  2  This  nephew 
was  George  Griesbach,  son  of  the  elder  daughter  in  the 
Herschel  family,  and  a  musician  well  known  and 
favoured  at  Court.  A  chaise  was  at  the  door  to  take 
brother  and  sister  to  Bristol,  ten  miles  away,  for  a 
forenoon  rehearsal  of  the  Messiah,  which  was  to  be 
performed  in  the  evening.  The  conductor  was  too 
much  absorbed  in  his  nephew's  news  from  Court  to 
attend  the  rehearsal.  Caroline  was  left  to  do  it  for 
him,  and  to  fill  "the  music  box  with  the  necessary 
parts  for  between  ninety  and  one  hundred  performers." 
This  was  how  news  of  the  endowment  of  research  came 
from  London  to  Bath.  It  was  a  reality,  not  a  romance 
gilded  with  glory,  like  the  news  brought  by  an  imagin- 
ary rider  from  Ghent  to  Aix.  But  the  news,  however 

1  Apparently  one  of  the  King's  equerries,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  more 
in  the  course  of  the  story. 

2  Caroline  Herschel,  Memoirs,  p.  44. 


VISIT  TO  BUCKINGHAM  PALACE       87 

satisfactory,  came  in  so  unsatisfactory  a  way,  and  were 
so  long  in  bearing  fruit,  that  something  was  at  work 
behind  the  scenes  delaying  progress.  It  appeared  that 
the  King's  private  astronomer,  Mr.  De  Mainborg,  was 
dead.  Herschel's  friends  imagined  he  was  to  succeed 
to  the  vacant  post  at  Kew,1  for  George  ill.  was  known 
for  his  patronage  of  astronomy  long  before  he  heard 
of  Herschel.  In  an  observatory  at  Richmond,  built 
under  the  superintendence  of  Bevis,  140  feet  long  and 
of  two  storeys,  were  several  grand  instruments  made 
by  Sisson  of  London.2 

Laden  "  with  everything  necessary  for  viewing 
double  stars,"  Herschel,  accompanied  by  his  friend, 
Sir  William  Watson,  left  home  on  May  8.  No  letter 
reached  the  anxious  household  at  Bath  for  a  fortnight. 
At  last  Caroline  and  Alexander  learned  that  "he  had 
been  introduced  to  the  King  and  Queen,  and  had 
permission  to  come  to  the  concerts  at  Buckingham 
House,  where  the  King  conversed  with  him  about 
astronomy."  He  was  also  so  favoured  that  "  the  King 
gave  him  leave  to  come  to  hear  the  Griesbachs  play  at 
the  private  concert  which  he  has  every  evening." 
Even  his  brother  Alexander  was  known  to  the  King, 
and  was  inquired  after  in  the  same  breath  apparently 
as  he  inquired  after  "  the  great  speculum."  Had  Miss 
Burney  been  telling  the  story,  she  would  probably 
have  said  that  "  What  ?  what  ?  what  ? "  looked  upon  the 
two  as  creatures  of  the  same  kind.  But  his  pupils 
and  Mr.  Palmer,  the  manager  of  the  theatre  at  Bath, 
must  be  told  that  he  could  not  return  till  the  King 
had  seen  the  planets  with  the  seven-foot  reflector,  and 
given  him  permission  to  leave.  That  telescope  had 

1  Memoirs,  p.  321.  2  Lalande,  Preface,  i.  xxxvii. 


88  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

found  a  temporary  home  in  the  Royal  Observatory  at 
Greenwich,  where  it  put  Dr.  Maskelyne  out  of  conceit 
with  the  instruments  he  had  for  national  use,  and,  not 
long  before,  for  exhibition,  with  handling  by  the  public, 
at  so  much  per  head ! l  Colonel  Walsh  again  makes 
his  appearance  as  entertaining  Herschel  at  dinner  with 
the  Astronomer-Royal,  and  Mr.  Aubert,  a  well-known 
observer  of  those  days.  Both  of  them  were  delighted 
with  the  new  telescope  and  its  inventor. 

Maskelyne  was  provided  at  Greenwich  with  two 
mural  quadrants  of  eight  feet  radius  at  a  cost  of  £280 
each,  a  great  transit  instrument,  a  sector  of  12  feet, 
and  many  other  instruments.  An  assistant  also  was 
kept  constantly  at  work  on  the  observations  made. 
Astronomers  allowed  that  at  no  place  had  so  many 
good  observations  been  made  as  at  Greenwich,  but 
Maskelyne  was  dissatisfied  when  he  compared  the 
instruments  with  the  telescope  of  Herschel,  the  work 
of  the  ablest  craftsmen  in  England  with  that  of  a 
novice.2  On  February  20,  1806,  the  French  mathe- 
maticians, "  notwithstanding  the  spirit  of  hostility  that 
had  so  long  animated  England  and  France  against  one 
another,"  gave  a  most  gratifying  proof  of  the  regard 
in  which  they  held  Maskelyne  and  his  predecessors  in 
the  Royal  Observatory  at  Greenwich.  They  wrote  by 
De  Lambre  to  Maskelyne,  sending  him  seven  copies 
of  their  newly  published  astronomical  tables,  and 
paying  the  homage  of  gratitude  and  esteem  to  "the 
author  of  the  greatest  and  most  precious  collection  of 
observations  that  exists."  They  were  "  deduced,  by  the 
rules  of  Laplace,  chiefly  from  a  series  of  more  than 
three  thousand  two  hundred  observations  made  at 
1  Weld,  ii.  28.  3  Lalande,  Preface,  xxxvii.  (1771). 


BARGAINING  WITH   HERSCHEL        89 

Greenwich  between  the  years  1*765,  1793." l  Science 
was  thus  the  mother  of  peace  and  goodwill  between 
two  bitterly  hostile  nations. 

An  attack  of  influenza,  which  wore  off  in  less  than 
a  week ;  a  series  of  dinners,  at  which  the  new  lion  of 
science  was  exhibited  to  the  gaze  of  "  the  best  company," 
and  little  was  talked  "  of  but  what  they  called  his  great 
discoveries  " ;  two  nights  of  star-gazing  at  Greenwich ; 
state  concerts,  at  which  the  King  "  kept  him  in  conver- 
sation for  half  an  hour,"  and  even  asked  George 
Griesbach  for  a  solo-concerto  that  his  uncle  might  hear 
him  play;  acting  the  showman  by  explaining  the 
speculum  to  the  Princesses,  and,  on  a  cloudy  evening, 
showing  them,  "  with  fine  effect "  through  the  telescope, 
a  pasteboard  Saturn  at  the  bottom  of  the  garden  wall," 
— these  and  other  tricks  of  this  "  showman  of  the 
heavens  "  were  his  employment  for  the  next  few  weeks. 
"  Company  is  not  always  pleasing,"  he  wrote,  "  and  I 
would  much  rather  be  polishing  a  speculum."  In  the 
midst  of  this  mental  dissipation  he  was  brought  down 
from  heaven  to  earth  by  his  money  running  short. 
Several  times  he  wrote  to  Bath  for  a  supply  !  Delays 
so  unnecessary,  and  the  thoughtless  indifference  with 
which  a  working  musician  was  kept  hanging  on  at 
Court,  without  regard  to  his  loss  or  his  expenses,  were 
not  creditable  to  those  concerned.  It  looks  as  if  there 
were  a  hitch  somewhere. 

His  sister  relates  in  a  letter  written  in  1842,  twenty 
years  after  his  death,  that  the  King  was  surrounded 
by  wiseacres,  who  knew  how  to  bargain.  They  pro- 
posed to  send  her  brother  back  to  Hanover  on  a  salary 
of  £100  a  year.  Her  idea  was  that  Parliament  had 

1  JEdin.  Rev.,  1809,  pp.  65,  69. 


90  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

"  granted  to  the  King  £80,000  a  year  for  encouraging 
sciences."  She  also  believed  that  West  the  painter 
and  her  brother  were  the  first  who  benefited  by  this 
grant.  She  is  referring,  of  course,  to  the  arrange- 
ments regarding  the  Civil  List,  which  came  into  effect 
in  1782.1 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  King  had  more  serious 
difficulties  in  dealing  with  William  Herschel  than  are 
generally  supposed.  Unquestionably  he  had  deserted 
the  army  of  Hanover  after  a  severe  defeat,  and  in 
presence  of  an  advancing  enemy.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  had  passed  since  then ;  but  could  the  Elector 
of  Hanover,  as  King  of  Great  Britain,  pass  over  an 
offence  so  grave,  and  knowingly  honour  the  offender 
even  after  that  lapse  of  time?  So  long  as  it  was 
simply  letting  bygones  be  bygones,  the  matter  was 
easy  of  solution;  but  it  came  to  have  another  look 
when  the  offender  was  received  under  the  shelter  of 
the  palace,  admitted  to  intercourse  with  the  Royal 
Family,  and  paid  a  pension  out  of  the  King's  purse. 
That  the  offence  was  unknown  to  the  King  is  altogether 
improbable.  He  knew  Herschel's  younger  brother, 
Alexander,  and  inquired  after  him  at  a  state  concert 
in  Buckingham  House.  He  knew  also  the  Griesbachs, 
Herschel's  nephews,  and  employed  five  of  them  at  these 
concerts.  A  family  from  the  town  of  Hanover,  and  of 
such  outstanding  ability,  would  be  so  much  in  the 
mouth  of  Hanoverians  that  echoes  at  least  of  their 
gossip  could  not  fail  to  reach  the  King's  ears.  The 
King's  knowledge  of  every  petty  detail  of  gossip  among 
the  Hanoverians  had  passed  into  a  proverb  in  England. 
"Modern  poets  differ  from  the  Elizabethans  in  this," 

1  Memoirs,  p.  321. 


DELAYS  AND  DIFFICULTIES  91 

Keats  wrote,  while  George  ill.  was  living :  "  each  of  the 
moderns,  like  an  Elector  of  Hanover,  governs  his  petty 
state,  and  knows  how  many  straws  are  swept  daily 
from  the  causeways  in  all  his  dominions,  and  has  a 
continual  itching  that  all  the  housewives  should  have 
their  coppers  well  scoured."1  It  is  manifest,  too,  that 
Herschel  had  no  desire  to  return  to  his  Hanover  home, 
or  even  to  the  mother  who  aided  him  to  escape  in 
1757,  and  was  the  foolish  cause  of  many  perplexities 
and  troubles.  In  fifteen  years  his  visits  were  few, 
only  three  apparently,  and  his  stay  was  brief.  There 
was  something  in  the  air  of  the  place  that  disagreed 
with  him.  It  may  therefore  be  that  the  King  required 
to  consult  his  ministers  in  Hanover  before  he  could 
overlook  the  offence  of  a  young  guardsman,  who  had 
now  become  an  astronomer,  with  whose  fame  all 
Europe  was  ringing.  For  two  months  the  uncertainty 
about  William  Herschel's  future  continued.  Communi- 
cation with  Hanover  on  business  of  state  in  those 
days  was  conducted  by  a  "  quarterly  messenger,"  who 
was  sometimes  delayed,  even  in  George  iv.'s  reign, 
forty  years  after  this  time.  Delay  was  thus  perhaps 
unavoidable.2  Clearly,  the  King  or  his  advisers  could 
not  make  up  their  minds  what  to  do.  At  last  they 
came  to  a  decision  in  the  way  people  do  when  in  doubt. 
They  split  the  difference,  and  made  a  bargain  with 
Herschel  unworthy  of  the  King  and  the  country.  It 
looks  as  if  Britain  incurred  odium  for  the  sake  of 
Hanover. 

That  the  bargain  included  a  pardon  under  the  King's 

1  Life,  February  3,  1818,  i.  84. 

2  Memoirs  of  Sir  William  Knighton,  i.  321  ;  Car.  Her.  also,  pp.  232, 
240,  239. 


92  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

own  hand  is  asserted  on  what  is  called  unquestionable 
evidence,  and  is  in  itself  extremely  probable  from  a 
story  told  of  George  iv.  on  his  visit  to  Hanover  in 
1821.  "Early  in  the  morning,"  his  physician-in- 
ordinary  says,  "  a  poor  woman,  with  a  countenance 
apparently  much  worn  with  sorrow,  on  her  knees 
presented  a  petition  to  the  King's  Hanoverian  cham- 
berlain, which  was  rejected.  I  saw  this  from  the 
saloon,  from  which  I  was  looking  down  on  the  many 
thousand  persons  assembled  in  the  courtyard,  and  I 
observed  the  expression  of  despair  which  followed.  I 
hastened  down,  fearing  to  lose  sight  of  her,  got  her 
petition,  and  presented  it  to  the  King. 

"It  craved  his  mercy  for  her  husband,  who  was 
doomed  to  five  years'  hard  labour  in  a  fortress.  She 
was  the  mother  of  eight  little  children,  and,  it  need 
not  be  added,  in  great  poverty  and  want.  The  crime 
was  of  a  nature  to  be  pardoned,  and  this  was  done 
with  his  pen  instantly ;  for  here  his  authority  is 
absolute.  We  had  the  poor  woman  in  the  saloon,  and 
you  may  imagine  the  rest."  l 

The  view  taken  of  the  bargain  at  the  time  was  given 
voice  to  by  Caroline  Herschel,  and  has  since  been 
frequently  repeated  to  the  King's  discredit,  without  the 
retractation  which  she  made  after  her  brother's  death. 
Here  is  the  retractation.  Writing  to  her  nephew,  in 
April  1827,  she  says  : — "  P.S. — I  must  say  a  few  words 
of  apology  for  the  good  King,  and  ascribe  the  close 
bargains  which  were  made  between  him  and  my 
brother  to  the  shabby,  mean-spirited  advisers,  who 
were  undoubtedly  consulted  on  such  occasions;  but 
they  are  dead  and  gone,  and  no  more  of  them  !  Sir  J. 
1  Knighton,  i.  169. 


SHABBINESS  OF  KING'S  ADVISERS     93 

Banks  remained  a  sincere,  well-meaning  friend  to  the 
last."  Not  many  days  after  (May  8,  1827)  she  writes 
what  it  never  occurred  to  her,  apparently,  might 
account  for  this  alleged  mean-spirited  shabbiness: 
"  When  in  1758  he  again  went  to  England,  it  was 
under  such  unpleasant  circumstances  that  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  it  to  his  mother  to  send  his  trunk 

O 

after  him  to  Hamburg."1  The  nation  or  mob  that 
shot  Admiral  Byng  for  incapacity  four  months  before 
the  Hanoverian  bandsman  deserted,  that  cashiered  Lord 
George  Sackville  for  less  two  years  before,  and  that 
not  only  ridiculed  the  King's  own  uncle,  "the  poor 
Duke,"  as  Cumberland  was  called,  "  the  lump  of  fat 
crowned  with  laurel  on  the  altar," 2  but  "  were  new 
grinding  their  teeth  and  nails  to  tear  him  to  pieces  the 
instant  he  lands,"3  for  a  similar  fault  to  Byng's,  had 
to  be  reckoned  with  in  bestowing  honours  on  a  deserter. 
So  the  King  may  have  thought,  and  so  his  dilatoriness 
and  apparent  shabbiness  may  be  accounted  for,  as  well 
as  the  secrecy  in  which  the  affair  was  shrouded  during 
their  lives. 

But  there  are  circumstances  which  involve  in  still 
greater  obscurity  the  whole  of  these  so-called  bargains 
between  the  King  and  William  Herschel.  Some  years 
after  the  death  of  both,  an  English  writer  spoke  of  the 
ingratitude  of  England.  But  there  is  no  proof  that 
Herschel,  though  settled  in  England,  was  ever  natural- 
ised. His  sister,  so  far  as  words  could  go,  threw  off 
her  German  nationality ;  but  words  are  not  law.  "  I 
was  always  sure  to  be  noticed  by  the  Duke  of  Cam- 
bridge as  his  countrywoman,"  she  wrote  in  1835,  "  (and 

1  Memoirs,  p.  211.  2  Referring  to  a  cartoon  of  the  day. 

3  Walpole's  Letters,  iii.  475,  284. 


94  HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

that  is  what  I  want,  I  will  be  no  Hanoverian !) " l 
That  these  sentiments  were  simply  an  echo  of  her 
brother's,  we  can  scarcely  doubt.  As  far  also  as  is  now 
known,  "the  bargains"  made  were  not  reduced  to 
writing.  Everything  seems  to  have  been  done  by  word 
of  mouth.  In  fact,  George  in.  and  his  advisers  dealt 
with  Herschel,  not  as  an  Englishman  but  as  a  German. 
No  English  honours  were  bestowed  on  him,  such  as 
were  bestowed  on  younger  or  less  deserving  men. 
Sir  Humphry  Davy  received  the  honour  of  knight- 
hood from  the  Prince  Regent  in  1812.  He  was  forty 
years  younger  than  Herschel.  Dr.  Smith,  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Linnean  Society,  was  knighted  by  the 
Prince  two  years  afterwards,  although  he  was  not 
specially  known  as  a  man  of  science.2  Two  years 
later  Herschel  received  a  paltry  honour,  at  least  as 
Englishmen  counted  honours.  There  must  have  been 
reasons  for  this  apparent  neglect.  But  whatever  they 
were,  the  truth  remains  that  as  far  as  can  now  be 
known,  the  rashness  and  anxiety  of  a  woman  of  small 
capacity  saved  her  son  from  the  life  of  a  musician  in 
a  Hanoverian  regiment,  not  to  his  honour  or  hers 
certainly,  and  made  a  present  of  him  to  the  cause  of 
science  with  results  of  unspeakable  honour  to  himself 
and  the  human  race.  The  lad  of  nineteen  who  was 
induced  by  his  mother  to  desert  an  army,  led  by  an 
incompetent  "  lump  of  fat,"  as  they  then  said,  was  no 
coward.  He  perilled  life  and  limb  too  often  in  his  work 
as  an  astronomer  to  be  counted  a  poltroon  as  a  soldier. 
When  George  ill.  thus  resolved  to  endow  research 
in  the  person  of  William  Herschel  by  appointing  him 
Royal  Astronomer  at  a  salary  of  £200  a  year,  coupled 

1  Memoirs,  p.  276.  2  Weld,  History,  etc.,  ii.  327,  198. 


"SHOWMAN  OF  THE  HEAVENS"       95 

with  permission  to  make  and  sell  telescopes  for  his 
own  behoof,  and  with  the  requirement  that  he  should 
act  as  "showman  of  the  heavens"  to  princes  and 
princesses,  it  was  neither  an  uncommon  nor  an  un- 
generous act  in  the  world  of  science.  It  is  presented 
to  us  in  the  gossip  of  the  day  as  lacking  in  generosity, 
and  reflecting  small  credit  on  the  King  and  his  advisers. 
The  salary  of  Dr.  Maskelyne,  then  Astronomer-Royal, 
and  the  head  of  the  most  famous  observatory  in 
Europe,  a  man  of  high  standing  to  boot,  and  of  world- 
wide scientific  attainment,  was  only  £300,  to  the  dis- 
credit of  the  nation,  not  of  the  King.  Besides,  the 
Civil  List  from  which,  presumably,  the  pension  was 
paid,  was  then  in  a  transition  and  probably  a  crippled 
state.  Two  years  before,  Mr.  Dunning  moved  in  the 
Commons,  and,  after  a  feeble  resistance,  carried,  "  That 
it  was  competent  to  the  House,  whenever  they  thought 
proper,  to  examine  into  and  correct  abuses  in  the 
expenditure  of  the  Civil  List  revenues."  The  Court 
required  to  be  on  its  guard,  as,  in  the  very  year  the 
pension  was  granted  to  Herschel,  the  King  sent  a 
message  to  the  Commons,  "  requesting  a  discharge  of 
arrears  of  Civil  List,  amounting  to  nearly  £296,000 ; 
the  House  voted  the  requisite  sum."  1 

The  endowment  of  research  was  far  from  being  a 
new  thing  in  Europe.  It  had  been  the  work  of  princes ; 
it  was  now  becoming  the  work  of  parliaments  and 
people.  James  I.  when,  in  defiance  of  the  witches  of 
Scotland  and  Denmark,  he  crossed  the  North  Sea  to 

1Adolphus,  History,  iii.  119,  372  (1780,  1782).  By  the  Parlia- 
mentary regulations  passed  in  1782  "no  pension  was  to  exceed  £300  a 
year  "  (15th  April)  (Cassell's  History,  iv.  290-91).  In  1783  arrears  were 
again  accumulating  (Cassell,  iv.  301). 


96  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

fetch  home  his  bride,  spent  eight  days  under  the  roof 
of  "that  princely  promoter  of  astronomy/'  Tycho 
Brahe.  He  found  the  astronomer  living  in  comfort, 
encouraged  by  the  splendid  allowances  of  the  King  of 
Denmark,  and  able  to  build  an  observatory,  which  is 
said  to  have  cost  £20,000.  Though  always  in  straits 
for  money,  he  not  only  honoured  Tycho  at  his  depar- 
ture with  "  a  magnificent  present,  but  also  addressed 
to  him  a  copy  of  verses."  One  of  James's  grandsons, 
Charles  II.,  appointed  Flamsteed  to  be  Astronomer-Royal 
at  a  salary  of  £100  a  year.  So  inadequately  was  he 
paid  that  he  had  to  eke  out  his  income  by  taking 
orders  in  the  Church  of  England.  But  James's  great- 
grandson,  William,  was  a  more  generous  patron  of 
science  than  his  uncle.  In  his  reign  Newton  received 
the  post  of  Master  of  the  Mint  with  a  salary  of  £1200 
or  £1500  a  year,  at  a  time  when  the  commercial  interests 
of  England  required  a  man  of  great  intelligence,  honesty, 
and  resource  to  rescue  society  from  the  embarrassments 
into  which  incompetence  and  gambling  had  plunged 
the  Mint  and  the  country.  A  man  of  ability  was 
required  to  cope  with  the  evils  of  the  time,  and 
Newton,  in  spite  of  the  sneers  with  which  his  appoint- 
ment was  hailed  even  by  Pope,  proved  himself  to  be 
the  right  man  in  the  right  place.1  But  the  sneer  cast 
at  our  Government  was  true  then,  and  may  still  be 
true,  as  it  was  seventy  years  ago  when  first  uttered, 
"  Able  men  are  sure  of  office  when  its  emoluments 
are  abolished."  Men  of  science,  men  devoted  to 
the  best  interests  of  their  country,  Dalton,  Priestley, 
Ivory,  Young,  Wollaston,  and  Murdoch,  to  name  no 
others,  were  treated  with  neglect,  or  considered  well 

1  Macanlay's  Works  iv.  248. 


SCIENCE  NEGLECTED  IN  ENGLAND     97 

paid  if  a  Royal  Society  medal  were  awarded  to  them. 
Some,  like  James  Watt,  had  even  to  save  their  own 
inventions  from  the  grasp  of  unscrupulous  claimants, 
who  wished  to  rob  them  of  the  fruits  of  their  genius. 
The  result  of  this  policy  of  indifference  was  plain  to 
all  who  could  see.  "In  England,  whole  branches  of 
Continental  discovery  are  unstudied,  and,  indeed,  almost 
unknown,  even  by  name.  It  is  in  vain  to  conceal  the 
melancholy  truth.  We  are  fast  dropping  behind.  In 
mathematics  we  have  long  since  drawn  the  rein,  and 
given  over  a  hopeless  race.  In  chemistry  the  case  is 
not  much  better."  These  were  the  words  of  Sir  John 
Herschel  in  1830,  fifteen  years  after  the  great  war 
was  ended,  and  could  no  longer  be  pleaded  as  a  reason 
for  our  isolation  and  ignorance.  Sir  Humphry  Davy, 
President  of  the  Royal  Society,  spoke  in  the  same 
terms  and  about  the  same  time.  Babbage,  the  in- 
ventor of  the  wonderful  calculating  machine,  expressed 
views  equally  strong.  "  In  England,  particularly  with 
respect  to  the  more  difficult  and  abstract  sciences,  we 
are  not  merely  much  below  other  nations  of  equal  rank, 
but  below  several  even  of  inferior  power,  .  .  .  and 
nothing  but  the  full  expression  of  public  opinion  can 
remove  the  evils  that  chill  the  enthusiasm,  and  cramp 
the  energies  of  the  science  of  England." 1  Seventy 
years  have  passed  since  then,  and  though  it  cannot  be 
said  that  the  ground  lost  has  been  all  regained,  a  vast 
change  for  the  better  has  taken  place.  Public  opinion 
has  been  awakened  to  the  danger  that  threatens  the 
country  from  this  neglect. 

It  was  long  in  vain  that  learned  men,  loving  their 

1  Quarterly  Review,  xliii.  305,  "Reflexions  on  the  Decline  of  Science 
in  England,  and  on  some  of  its  Causes." 

7 


98  HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

country,  and  seeing  where  one  source  at  least  of  its 
true  greatness  lay,  called  attention  to  our  rulers'  dis- 
regard of  education  and  science.  "  The  return  of  the 
sword  to  its  scabbard"  in  1815,  says  an  author  who 
wrote  fifteen  years  later,  "  seems  to  have  been  the  signal 
for  one  universal  effort  to  recruit  exhausted  resources, 
to  revive  industry  and  civilisation,  and  to  direct  to  their 
proper  objects  the  genius  and  talent  which  war  had 
either  exhausted  in  its  service  or  repressed  in  its 
desolations.  In  this  rivalry  of  skill,  England  alone 
has  hesitated  to  take  a  part."  France  was  leading  the 
way,  and  was  making  up  the  ground  it  had  lost. 
"  Let  us  frankly  acknowledge  the  fact,"  Arago  wrote, 
"at  the  time  when  Herschel  was  prosecuting  his 
beautiful  observations,  there  existed  in  France  no 
instrument  adapted  for  developing  them ;  we  had  not 
even  the  means  of  verifying  them.  Fortunately  for 
the  scientific  honour  of  our  country,  mathematical 
analysis  is  also  a  powerful  instrument.  Laplace  gave 
ample  proof  of  this  on  a  memorable  occasion,  when 
from  the  retirement  of  his  chamber  he  predicted,  he 
minutely  announced,  what  the  excellent  astronomer 
of  Windsor  would  see  with  the  largest  telescopes 
which  were  ever  constructed  by  the  hand  of  man." 
And  he  adds,  "  It  is  for  nations  especially  to  bear  in 
remembrance  the  ancient  adage,  noblesse  oblige  !  " ! 

It  was  not  and  had  not  been  an  uncommon  thing 
for  kings  and  princes  to  encourage  research,  when 
George  in.  extended  his  patronage  to  the  toiling 
musician  of  Bath.  For  two  hundred  years,  at  least, 
it  had  been  a  common  thing  in  Europe — so  common, 
indeed,  that,  if  Herschel  thought  of  it  as  a  possibility 

1  Arago,  Biographies,  223,  237. 


GALILEO,  LEIBNITZ,  FRAUNHOFER     99 

in  his  own  case,  he  was  justified  by  what  the  world 
knew  of  the  lives  of  men  of  science  on  the  Continent. 
He  could  say,  as  Galileo  said  before  him,  "  My  private 
lectures  and  domestic  pupils  are  a  great  hindrance 
and  interruption  to  my  studies ;  I  wish  to  be  entirely 
exempt  from  the  former,  and  in  great  measure  from 
the  latter."  Herschel  had  the  same  wishes,  but  not 
the  same  success,  for  Galileo  was  relieved  of  all  pro- 
fessional duty,  except  giving  lectures  on  extraordinary 
occasions  to  sovereign  princes  and  other  strangers  of 
distinction.  He  was  honoured  with  pensions  and 
rewards  from  a  petty  prince  in  Italy,  far  superior  at 
first  to  what  Herschel  enjoyed  from  the  bounty  of  the 
wealthiest  monarch  and  the  richest  country  in  the 
world. 

Galileo  was  only  one  example  out  of  a  multitude. 
Leibnitz,  the  contemporary  and  rival  of  Newton,  was 
another.  He  was  laden  with  honours  and  rewards 
showered  on  him  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  the  other. 
He  left  "a  fortune  of  sixty  thousand  crowns,  which 
were  found,  after  his  death,  accumulated  in  sacks  in 
various  kinds  of  specie."  Descartes,  Euler,  the  two 
Bernoullis,  Huyghens,  and  many  more  are  proofs  of 
the  encouragement  given  to  science  by  kings  and 
princes.  But  the  example  of  Fraunhofer,  the  con- 
temporary of  Herschel,  of  Dollond,  of  Wollaston,  first 
a  common  worker,  then  a  great  inventor  and  discoverer, 
shows  best  what  George  ill.  might  have  done  for 
Herschel,  and  what  Herschel  was  justly  entitled  to 
expect  from  a  prince  who  was  twofold  his  sovereign, 
as  Elector  of  Hanover  and  King  of  Great  Britain.  Of 
Fraunhofer  it  is  said  "  his  own  sovereign,  Maximilian 
Joseph,  was  his  earliest  and  his  latest  patron;  and  by 


ioo         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  liberality  with  which  he  conferred  civil  honours 
and  pecuniary  rewards  on  Joseph  Fraunhofer,  he  has 
immortalised  his  own  name  and  added  a  new  lustre 
to  the  Bavarian  crown."  The  German  and  other 
astronomers,  who  refused  to  accept  Georgium  Sidus 
as  a  name  for  the  planet  discovered  by  Herschel,  were 
right,  as  things  then  stood :  the  King,  who  then  did 
so  shabbily  by  the  astronomer,  deserved  neither  part 
nor  lot  in  the  astronomer's  heavens ;  and  the  common 
sense  of  mankind  gave  him  none.  But  the  King  was 
unfairly  judged,  notwithstanding. 

This  encouragement  of  science  stood  on  a  different 
footing  from  the  degradation  of  private  patronage  and 
fulsome  dedications,  to  which  literature  had  been 
subjected,  and  from  which  it  had  shaken  itself  free. 
But  both  literature  and  science  were  exposed  to 
another  danger  than  neglect — disparagement  and  envy 
from  within  their  own  borders.  In  the  case  of 
Herschel  we  have  a  curious  example  of  what  seems 
this  meanness,  written  in  1830,  eight  years  after  his 
death:  "Herschel's  fame  rests  on  discoveries,  for 
which  he  was  indebted  solely  to  the  great  power  of 
his  telescope.  That  of  the  planet,  sometimes  called 
by  his  name,  was  an  accidental  discovery,  in  which 
genius  had  no  part,  and  which  could  not  have  been 
much  longer  deferred.  He  did  not,  like  his  illustrious 
contemporaries  Delambre  and  Piazzi,  distinguish  him- 
self by  the  amelioration  of  the  tables,  or  the  reduction 
of  catalogues  of  the  stars,  or  by  improving  methods  of 
computation,  or  indeed  by  any  labour  of  practical 
utility.  He  devoted  himself  to  the  observation  of 
astronomical  phenomena,  and  in  this  department  his 
unrivalled  telescopes  gave  him  a  sort  of  supremacy. 


DISPARAGEMENT  OF  HEUS~CHEL    YoY 

His  speculations  concerning  the  structure  of  the 
universe — the  progressive  condensation  of  nebulae  and 
clusters  of  stars — the  nature  of  the  sun  and  the 
seasons  of  the  planets — occupying  a  large  portion  of 
the  goodly  collection  of  sixty-seven  Memoirs,  which 
he  contributed  to  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society — are  lively  and  amusing,  but  they  are  entirely 
useless  to  astronomy,  and  have  added  nothing  to  the 
mass  of  real  knowledge."  What  an  ungenerous, 
narrow-minded,  unjust  criticism !  Most  certainly  the 
man  who,  by  patient  effort  and  ingenious  contrivance, 
advances  the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge,  if  he  is 
not  a  genius,  deserves  something  better  from  his 
fellows  than  thus  to  be  lightly  esteemed  for  long- 
continued  and  successful  labours.  If  Herschel  had 
done  nothing  but  invent  a  sounding-line  to  fathom 
the  depths  of  space,  and  reveal  worlds  of  light  in 
countless  profusion,  he  would  have  deserved  well  of 
humanity.  The  same  criticism  might  have  been 
passed  on  Galileo,  who,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  was 
proud  to  say  that  the  Grand  Duke  "  Ferdinand  had 
been  amusing  himself  with  making  object-glasses,  and 
always  carried  one  with  him  to  work  it  wherever  he 
went."  Herschel,  like  Galileo  and  the  Grand  Duke, 
but  on  a  vastly  grander  scale,  was  a  grinder  of  mirrors 
for  telescopes  that  were  the  wonder  or  envy  of  the 
world.  And  a  distinguished  man  of  science  in  our 
own  time  wrote  of  Herschel:  "The  success  of  this 
celebrated  astronomer  gave  birth  to  a  spirit  of 
observation  and  inquiry  which  was  before  unknown. 
The  heavens  have  been  explored  with  the  most  un- 
wearied assiduity,  and  this  laudable  zeal  for  the 
advancement  of  astronomy  has  been  crowned  with 


102         'HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  discovery  of  four  new  planets."1  It  was  thus 
not  only  what  Herschel  was  doing  himself,  but  what 
he  was  inducing  others  to  do. 

George  III.  would  not  suffer  William  Herschel  to 
return  to  his  profession  as  organist,  teacher  of  music, 
and  director  of  concerts  in  Bath.  He  was  in  this  guided 
by  an  impulse  worthy  of  the  King  of  a  great  com- 
mercial and  earth-exploring  country.  But  for  more 
than  two  months  Herschel  was  kept  in  London  and 
the  neighbourhood,  waiting  the  King's  pleasure. 
Double  the  time  had  elapsed  during  which  he  could 
be  absent  from  duty  without  loss  of  money,  but  until 
he  got  leave  from  the  King  to  return  home  he  had  to 
remain  in  attendance  at  Court.  Whoever  was  advis- 
ing His  Majesty  in  the  matter  seems  to  have  acted 
with  singular  want  of  thought.  A  Cosmo  of  Florence, 
a  King  of  France,  a  Queen  of  Sweden,  or  an  Empress  of 
Russia  would  not  have  kept  a  man  of  science,  who  had 
at  one  bound  sprung  into  greatness,  dangling  about 
the  Court  so  long  without  providing  for  his  personal 
wants.  In  Herschel's  case  it  was  otherwise,  for  he 
wrote  to  Bath  "  several  times  for  a  supply  of  money  "  ! 
His  friends  in  that  city,  loath  to  lose  him,  were,  and 
not  without  cause,  afraid  that  the  offers  made  to  him 
were  not  "  very  advantageous."  They  were  certainly 
not  creditable  to  those  concerned.  Herschel  appears 
to  have  thought  so  himself,  for,  to  all  inquirers,  but 
Dr.  William  Watson,  his  answer  was,  "  that  the  King 
had  provided  for  him." 

It  was  a  poor  provision,  even  though  no  demands 
had  been  made  on  his  time  and  strength.  It  was 

1  Sir  David  Brewster  in  his  edition  of  Ferguson's  Astronomy,  published 
in  1823,  the  year  after  Herschel's  death,  ii.  85. 


HONOUR  CHEAPLY  BOUGHT    103 

shabby  when  the  return  he  had  to  make  was  set  off 
against  the  salary  he  received.  A  teacher  of  elocution, 
the  father  of  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  had  enjoyed 
a  pension  of  the  same  amount  for  about  twenty  years, 
through  the  influence  of  Lord  Bute,  "  to  enable  him  to 
carry  on  his  literary  pursuits." l  But  small  though  the 
allowance  was,  Herschel  preferred  the  post  of  Royal 
Astronomer  at  Windsor  to  the  troubles  of  a  teacher's 
life  at  Bath.  His  friend  Dr.  Watson,  not  having  yet 
forgotten,  it  may  be,  the  discreditable  civil  war  be- 
tween "the  sharps"  and  "the  blunts,"  in  which  the 
King  did  not  figure  to  advantage,  four  years  before, 
only  echoed  what  would  have  been  the  general 
sentiment  of  scientific  men,  had  they  known,  as  he 
did,  the  money  part  of  the  arrangement,  when  he 
exclaimed,  "  Never  bought  monarch  honour  so  cheap  ! " 
It  is  far  from  pleasant  to  look  back  on  this  transaction 
or  on  the  one-sided  record  of  it  given  by  Miss  Herschel. 
Well  would  it  have  been  had  she  laid  the  burden  of 
blame  on  advisers,  whom  apparently  she  was  not 
ignorant  of.  Probably  it  added  to  the  bitterness 
which  dropped  from  her  pen,  that  in  the  following 
year,  Pallas,  or  Mr.  Pallas  as  he  was  called  in  this 
country,  a  student  of  George  IIL'S  own  University  of 
Gottingen,  and  a  man  of  science  far  from  equal  to 
Herschel,  got  an  addition  of  £200  to  his  salary  in 
Russia  ! 2  For  the  transaction,  as  we  have  seen,  had  a 
shabbier  look  than  appears  on  the  surface.  At  least, 
as  it  is  represented,  so  it  seems.  Herschel  was  to  give 
lessons  in  astronomy  to  the  Princesses  of  the  Royal 
Family,  when  called  upon,  and  to  receive  the  visitors 
whom  His  Majesty  might  send.  This  might  and  did 

1  Watkins,  Memoirs,  etc.,  i.  104.  *  Scots  Mag.,  1785,  p.  536. 


104          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

prove  a  tax  upon  him,  especially  if  he  had  been  up  all 
night  watching  the  heavens.  Still,  it  seemed  a  leaf 
taken  out  of  the  book  of  duties  laid  on  Galileo  by 
Cosmo  de  Medici,  and  promised  to  be  both  a  relaxation 
and  a  pleasure.  The  same  cannot  be  said  of  the  other 
part  of  Herschel's  commission.  He  was  at  liberty  and 
he  was  encouraged  to  make  reflecting  telescopes  for 
sale,  as  a  means  of  adding  to  his  income.  An  arrange- 
ment so  unwise,  from  the  shopkeeping  look  it  wore, 
should  not  have  been  proposed  or  sanctioned.  It  was 
a  source  of  profit  to  the  astronomer;  but  it  did  not 
differ  from  allowing  Herschel  to  set  up  a  factory  for 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  telescopes  with  the  Royal 
arms  over  the  door,  and  "By  appointment  Royal 
Astronomer  to  the  King"  painted  underneath.  No 
one  who  reads  the  language  in  which  Buonaparte 
wrote  to  Laplace  not  many  years  after,  can  be  surprised 
that,  in  view  of  this  lowering  of  science,  England 
should  have  been  spoken  of  by  him  as  a  nation  of 
shopkeepers.  The  King  himself  became  Herschel's 
first  customer,  ordering  from  him  four  10-f eet  reflectors, 
one  of  which  was  intended  as  a  present  to  the 
University  of  Gottingen,  which  had  been  founded  by 
his  grandfather,  George  II.,  forty-five  years  before, 
and  was  then  rising  into  fame.  These  four  reflectors 
cost  six  hundred  and  forty  guineas  apiece,  and  yielded 
a  handsome  profit.1  Others,  less  costly,  but  still  re- 
munerative, were  also  ordered.  Two  hundred  guineas 

1  This  looks  like  the  market  price,  if  we  may  judge  from  Short's 
charges  forty  years  before.  "After  Short  had  established  himself  in 
London  in  1742  he  received  £630  for  a  12-feet  reflector  from  Lord 
Thomas  Spencer.  In  1752  he  executed  one  for  the  King  of  Spain  for 
£1200.  The  King  of  Denmark  offered  twelve  hundred  guineas"  for 


PRICES  OF  TELESCOPES 


105 


was  a  common  price.  To  be  an  instrument-maker, 
and  to  sell  telescopes,  was  allowed  him  by  the  King ; 
but  his  sister's  judgment  on  these  conditions  of  the 
appointment  is  marked  by  her  usual  outspoken 
candour.  Unfortunately,  she  presented  the  business 
in  the  least  favourable  light  for  the  King,  and  her 
sentiments  have  been  unfairly  echoed  to  his  discredit.1 
Time  so  valuable  as  Herschel's  was  often  absorbed 
by  idle  visitors,  who  understood  little  of  his  work, 
and  made  him  no  intellectual  return.  Sometimes  a 
visit  was  paid  to  Slough  that  came  to  be  remembered 
from  its  surroundings,  but  from  nothing  else.  Of 
these  none  was  more  tragic  than  that  of  "  the  Princesse 
Lamballe,  who  came  with  a  numerous  attendance  to 
see  the  moon,  etc.  About  a  fortnight  after,  her  head 
was  off.3'2 

another  (Life  of  Newton,  i.  57).     In  Lalande's  Astronomy,  vol.  i.  xlix- 
lii,  is  a  price-catalogue  of  astronomical  instruments.    Short's  prices  were — 

12 -inch  reflector,  14  guineas. 

18  20 


24 
36 
48 
72 
144 


35 

75 

100 

300 

800 


Only  one  telescope  of  12  feet  was  made  by  Short.  In  presenting  a  10- 
feet  reflector  to  the  Society  at  Gottingen,  George  in.  was  following  the 
example  of  his  grandfather,  the  founder  of  the  University,  who  pre- 
sented it  in  1756  with  a  mural  quadrant  of  6-feet  radius,  made  by 
Bird  (£175),  and  other  instruments. 

1  Sir  David  Brewster  goes  too  far  on  the  other  side  when  he  says, 
' '  None  of  the  sovereigns  who  either  preceded  or  followed  him  have 
an  equal  claim  on  the  homage  of  astronomers  "  (Life  of  Newton,  i.  60). 
This  could  not  be  said  of  the  King  at  first. 

2  Memoirs,  p.  332.     This  is  assigned  to  1787,  when  she  was  certainly  in 
England  ;  but  the  Princess  perished  in  1792. 


CHAPTEK    VII 

THE  GREAT  TELESCOPE 

THERE  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  discoverer  of  the 
telescope  was  Roger  Bacon,  who  in  the  thirteenth 
century  also  invented  gunpowder,  and  was  rewarded 
with  the  curses  of  the  Church,  the  reproaches  of  his 
fellow-friars,  and  the  terror  of  the  ignorant  as  a 
wonder-worker  by  the  aid  of  evil  arts.  His  discovery 
of  how  to  see  to  a  greater  distance  than  the  eye  can 
reach,  was  a  seed  that  died  in  the  ground,  and  did  not 
come  to  life  again  till  the  world  was  more  than  three 
centuries  older.  A  spectacle-maker  of  Leyden,  Lipper- 
shey,  working  among  lenses,  as  the  glasses  of  spectacles 
are  called,  chanced  to  place  two  of  them  so  that,  in 
looking  through,  he  saw  a  distant  church  spire  as  if  it 
were  close  at  hand.  He  made  the  story  public  in 
1609.  Galileo,  who  happened  to  be  then  in  Venice, 
between  which  and  Holland  the  East  India  traffic  still 
continued,  and  gave  rise  to  a  considerable  commerce, 
heard  the  story,  probably  from  some  merchant,  and, 
instead  of  turning  it  into  ridicule  as  many  would  have 
done,  set  himself  to  find  out  if  he  could  not  do  what  a 
humble  spectacle-maker  on  the  other  side  of  Europe 
had  already  done.  He  was  successful.  He  brought 
the  moon  and  the  planets  so  much  nearer  to  the  earth 
that  astronomy  took  its  place  among  the  sciences. 

106 


GALILEO'S  TELESCOPE:  COLOUR     107 

Professors,  monks,  and  friars  were  as  bitter  revilers  of 
Galileo  as  they  had  been  of  Roger  Bacon.  The  sleep 
of  ages  of  ignorance  was  so  rudely  broken  by  the 
magical  little  tube  he  put  together,  that,  as  they  rubbed 
their  eyes  and  saw  the  old  world  of  thought  dissolving 
out  of  view,  they  cursed  the  disturber  of  their  grave- 
yard peace. 

Galileo's  first  telescope  magnified  three  diameters  or 
nine  times :  his  last  magnified  thirty -three  diameters. 
He  could  not  go  farther  with  the  glass  lenses  then  in 
use.  At  thirty-eight  diameters  the  colours,  developed 
in  the  passage  of  rays  of  light  through  glass,  or  by 
what  is  called  refraction,  put  an  effectual  stop  to  pro- 
gress. Newton  began  where  Galileo  stopped.  He 
analysed  a  beam  of  sunlight  into  its  component  colours 
as  they  are  seen  in  the  rainbow,  or  through  a  glass 
prism.  He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  "refraction 
could  not  be  produced  without  colour."  He  was  mis- 
taken, and  the  mistake  of  a  man  so  eminent  led  the 
whole  world  astray.  Acting  on  this  belief,  he  argued 
that  "no  improvement  could  be  expected  from  the 
refracting  telescope,"  that  is,  from  an  instrument  with 
a  glass  or  lens  at  the  object  end  of  the  tube  to  form 
an  eye  that  collected  and  focused  the  rays  of  light. 
Colour,  though  thus  barring  the  march  of  advancing 
science,  really  indicated  the  path  of  progress.  But 
nearly  two  centuries  elapsed  before  the  lost  road  was 
regained,  and  the  prism  of  glass  became  a  more  power- 
ful factor  in  revealing  the  wonders  of  distant  worlds 
than  the  best  telescopes.  However,  progress  was  not 
wholly  barred.  Colours  were  not  developed  by  the 
reflection  of  light  from  a  polished  surface.  If,  then,  a 
highly  polished  mirror  were  placed  in  the  bottom  of  a 


io8          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

tube,  open  at  the  other  end,  the  rays  of  light  could  be 
brought  to  a  focus  and  directed  to  an  eye-piece,  where 
an  observer,  with  his  back  to  the  object,  it  might  be, 
could  see  it  clearly  and  distinctly  magnified.  The 
mirror  required  to  be  of  a  parabolic  form,  and  might 
be  made  of  metal  or  of  glass.  Newton  chose  an  alloy 
of  tin  and  copper  for  the  mirror  or  speculum,  but  he 
did  not  trouble  himself  about  grinding  it  into  the  form 
of  a  parabola.  The  second  reflecting  telescope  he  made 
magnified  thirty-eight  diameters,  and  was  presented  to 
the  Koyal  Society  in  1671.  Half  a  century  passed 
before  any  farther  step  was  taken  with  either  refract- 
ing or  reflecting  telescope.  Hadley,  the  inventor  of 
the  sextant,  then  took  the  matter  up.  In  1723  he 
made  one  on  Newton's  pattern,  with  a  mirror  of 
6  inches  aperture,  and  a  focal  length  of  62f  inches.  Its 
eye-pieces  magnified  up  to  230  diameters.  A  report  on 
it  was  made  to  the  Royal  Society,  of  which  the  sub- 
stance was  that  Newton's  telescope  "  had  lain  neglected 
these  fifty  years,"  but  Hadley  had  shown  "  that  this 
noble  invention  does  not  consist  in  bare  theory." 
Strange  to  say,  in  that  very  year  an  English  gentle- 
man had  made  a  refracting  telescope,  which  largely 
overcame  the  difficulties  arising  from  colour.  His  was 
the  first  achromatic  or  colourless  telescope  :  it  remained 
the  only  one  for  another  fifty  years.  Although  its 
inventor  lived  all  that  time,  he  neither  claimed  first 
honours  nor  interfered  with  the  patent  of  the  second 
discoverer,  Dollond. 

Another  half-century  thus  passed,  and  little  or 
nothing  had  been  done.  Dollond  had  rediscovered  in 
1758  the  method  of  counteracting  colour  in  glass 
lenses,  but  no  one  seemed  disposed  to  apply  the  prin- 


REFRACTORS— ACHROMATIC         1 09 

ciple  on  a  large  scale.  Apparently  the  way  here  also 
was  barred  against  progress.  All  attempts  to  manu- 
facture discs  of  pure  flint  glass  larger  than  seven  inches 
in  diameter  failed.  Up  to  that  point  the  achromatic 
refracting  telescope  was  a  great  success.  For  seventy 
years  good  specimens  of  considerable  size  were  exceed- 
ingly rare,  and  even  in  1830  a  disc  of  eleven  inches  and 
seven-tenths  in  diameter  cost  flOOO.1  An  obscure 
musician,  considering  it  probably  impracticable  to  ex- 
tend the  range  of  Dollond's  telescope,  or  impressed  by 
the  name  and  authority  of  Newton,  was  amusing  him- 
self, in  1772,  if  hard  and  continuous  work  can  be  called 
amusement,  with  casting  and  grinding  mirrors,  with 
mounting  telescopes,  and  with  studying  the  heavens  in 
Bath,  the  gayest  and  idlest  city  in  England.  The 
people  who  formed  the  Literary  Society  of  the  town, 
who  met  to  read  papers  on  scientific  subjects,  and  some 
of  whom  were  members  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London, 
did  not  even  know  him.  They  were  pigmies  ;  a  giant 
was  among  them,  of  whose  existence  and  works  they 
were  not  aware. 

The  courage  of  this  musician  was  extraordinary.  In 
the  very  year  in  which  he  removed  to  Bath,  Messier, 
an  eminent  French  astronomer,  warned  the  Royal 
Society  of  London  that  progress  in  astronomy  could 
be  hoped  for  only  from  refractors.  His  words  are : 
"  It  were  to  be  wished  that  astronomers  might  be 
accommodated  with  achromatic  telescopes  of  the  most 
perfect  construction,  as  such  are  the  only  instruments 
whereby  a  great  knowledge  of  the  celestial  bodies  can 

1  Herschel  sometimes  used  a  3^-feet  achromatic  or  refracting  tele- 
scope and  a  single  eye-lens  to  confirm  apparently  the  evidence  of  his 
20-feet  or  7-feet  reflectors. 


no         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

be  acquired."  Herschel  cannot  well  be  supposed  to 
have  been  ignorant  of  this  scientific  faith.  With  the 
modest  boldness  of  true  genius  he  not  only  set  it  aside, 
but  he  proved  it  was  entirely  wrong.  This  was  at  the 
very  beginning  of  his  career.  A  novice  challenged  the 
accuracy  of  an  eminent  master  and  veteran  in  the  art ! 
A  novice  compelling  a  veteran  to  withdraw  his  pro- 
phecies and  confess  himself  in  error !  Why  he  thus 
set  aside  the  refractor  and  boldly  followed  to  un- 
imagined  ends  the  path  of  improvement  for  Newton's 
reflector  he  has  not  told  us.  Both  ways  were  open ; 
he  had  perhaps  tried  both,  for  he  was  aware  of  both ; 
but  he  preferred  the  latter. 

While  still  engaged  as  musical  director  and  teacher 
at  Bath,  Herschel  formed  the  design  of  constructing 
a  30-feet  reflector  with  a  3-feet  mirror.  This  was 
about  the  year  1778,  before  he  was  even  known  to 
the  upper  classes  of  citizens  or  visitors  as  an  amateur 
astronomer.  The  first  mirror  of  this  kind  which  he 
cast  cracked  in  the  cooling.  When  preparing  for  a 
second  casting,  the  furnace,  which  he  had  built  on  pur- 
pose in  his  own  house,  gave  way,  the  molten  metal 
ran  into  the  fire,  overflowed  the  stone  floor,  and  nearly 
cost  him  his  life.  But  his  papers  in  the  Philosophical 
Transactions  were  making  him  known,  and  his  dis- 
covery of  the  planet  Uranus  brought  him  to  the 
King's  notice,  and  put  a  stop  for  a  time  to  the  realisa- 
tion of  his  cherished  idea  of  a  great  telescope.  From 
the  first  he  was  bent  on  doing  what  no  other  had  done 
before  him — carrying  out  Newton's  conception  of  a 
great  reflector,  whether  the  mirror  used  were  glass  or 
metal,  and  exploring  the  heavens  with  an  instrument 
such  as  the  mind  of  man  had  never  before  imagined. 


PROPHECY  OF  HERSCHEL  in 

He  conceived  the  idea  of  a  40-feet  reflector,  with  a 
4-feet  mirror  at  the  bottom  of  the  tube,  cast  and 
polished  by  himself.  His  own  account  of  the  begin- 
ning of  this  magnificent  work  is  this :  "  In  the  year 
1783  I  finished  a  very  good  20-feet  reflector  with  a 
large  aperture,  and  mounted  it  upon  the  plan  of  my 
present  telescope.  After  two  years'  observation  with 
it,  the  great  advantage  of  such  apertures  appeared  so 
clearly  to  me,  that  I  recurred  to  my  former  intention 
of  increasing  them  still  farther ;  and  being  now  suffi- 
ciently provided  with  experience  in  the  work  I  wished 
to  undertake,  the  President  of  our  Royal  Society,  who 
is  always  ready  to  promote  useful  undertakings,  had 
the  goodness  to  lay  my  design  before  the  King.  His 
Majesty  was  graciously  pleased  to  approve  of  it,  and 
with  his  usual  liberality  to  support  it  with  his  Royal 
bounty."  There  is  this  to  be  said  on  the  departure 
now  made,  that  the  great  telescope,  from  the  difficulty 
of  handling  it.  cannot  be  considered  to  have  altogether 
answered  his  expectations,  for  the  20-feet  continued 
to  be  his  favourite  in  studying  the  heavens.  But  he 
was  full  of  hope.  "  By  applying  ourselves,"  he  wrote 
in  April  1784,  "  with  all  our  powers  to  the  improve- 
ment of  telescopes,  which  I  look  upon  as  yet  in  their 
infant  state,  and  turning  them  with  assiduity  to  the 
study  of  the  heavens,  we  shall  in  time  obtain  some  faint 
knowledge  of,  and  perhaps  be  able  partly  to  delineate, 
The  Interior  Construction  of  the  Universe!' 

Herschel  himself  devised  and  superintended  every- 
thing about  this  great  telescope.  None  but  "  common 
workmen "  were  employed,  as  was  also  the  case  with 
the  greater  reflector  built  by  Lord  Rosse,  sixty  years 
later.  The  woodwork  of  the  stand,  and  machines  for 


H2         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

giving  the  required  motions  up  or  down,  right  or  left, 
were   designed,   drawn,   and   overlooked    by   him    in 
their  minutest  details.     Not  a  screw  bolt  was  put  in — 
and  nothing  else  was  used  to  obviate  the  effects  of 
damp  getting  a  lodgment  in  the  woodwork — without 
his  own  eye  watching  or  directing   the  work.      The 
casting   of   the   great   mirror   was    begun   while   the 
building  of  the  stand  was  thus  proceeding.     He  had  to 
remove  from  Datchet  to  Clay  Hall,  and  thence,  in  1786, 
to  Slough,  before  the  mirror  was  finished,  but  apparatus 
and  materials  were  all  transferred  from  the  one  house 
to  the  other  without  delaying  the  work.     So  rapidly 
had  the  work  been  pushed  forward  that  the  stand  was 
ready,  and  the  mirror,  "  highly  polished,"  was  put  in 
the  tube  in  less  than  a  year  and  a  half.     "  I  had  the 
first  view  through  it,"  Herschel  writes,  "  on  Feb.  19, 
1787."     It  was  not  satisfactory.     "By  a   mismanage- 
ment of  the  person  who  cast  it,  it  came  out  thinner 
on  the  centre  of  the  back  than  was  intended,  and  on 
account   of   its   weakness  would   not   permit   a   good 
figure  to  be  given  to  it."     Twelve  or  fourteen  men  had 
been  daily  employed  in  grinding   or  polishing   it  by 
hand,  for  machinery  did  not  come  into  use  for  this 
purpose  till  1788.     It  was  labour  lost.     The  work  had 
to  be  begun  anew,  and  a  second  mirror  was  cast  Jan. 
26,  1788,  nearly  a  twelvemonth  after  the  first  peep 
into  the  other.     Fatality  again  !     "  It  cracked  in  cool- 
ing."    Three  weeks  after  it  was  recast,  and  by  Oct.  24 
it  was  brought  to  such  "  a  figure  and  polish  "  that  he 
tried  it  on  the  planet  Saturn.     He  was  so  dissatisfied 
with   the  result    that  he  "  continued  to  work  upon  it 
till  Aug.  27,  1789,  when  it  was  tried  upon  the  fixed 
stars,   and    found    to    give    a    pretty  sharp   image," 


DISCOVERY  OF  SATELLITE  OF  SATURN  1 1 3 

although  "  large  stars  were  a  little  affected  with 
scattered  light,  owing  to  many  remaining  scratches 
in  the  mirror." 

Four  years  of  hard  thinking  and  continuous  labour, 
of  battles  with  not  very  intelligent  workmen,  some- 
times forty  in  number,  and  of  disappointment  with 
himself,  if  not  also  with  grumbling  from  his  sister 
Caroline,  ended  at  last.  A  triumphant  tone  may  be 
heard  in  the  words  which  conclude  his  short  history  of 
the  progress  of  the  work.  They  are : — 

"Aug.  the  28th,  1789.— Having  brought  the  tele- 
scope to  the  parallel  of  Saturn,  I  discovered  a  sixth 
satellite  of  that  planet,  and  also  saw  the  spots  upon 
Saturn  better  than  I  had  ever  seen  them  before,  so 
that  I  may  date  the  finishing  of  the  40- feet  telescope 
from  that  time." 

Herschel  could  now  take  stock  of  the  "  contents  of 
the  heavens  "  as  he  had  never  been  able  to  do  before. 
High  above  the  ground,  while  the  tube  was  coated 
with  ice  in  winter,  or  running  with  streams  of 
moisture  in  summer,  he  could  dictate  through  speaking- 
tubes  what  his  sister  was  to  write  down,  or  how  the 
assistant  was  to  move  the  telescope.  Seated  in  a  little 
house  far  below,  his  sister  watched  the  clock,  and 
entered  remarks  and  measurements  with  an  accuracy 
and  zeal  no  other  assistant  could  have  equalled  or  sur- 
passed. Brother  and  sister  were  in  a  position  to  carry 
out  great  ideas,  and  to  put  into  living  shape  vast 
imaginations  of  genius. 

The    cost    of    this    telescope   was   far    more    than 

Herschel  could  be  expected  to  meet.     Fortunately,  the 

advisers  of  the  King  were  more  reasonable  men  than 

those  who  considered  £200  a  year  remuneration  enough 

8 


H4         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

for  the  Royal  Astronomer.  Chief  among  them  was  the 
Maecenas  of  science  in  those  days,  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
the  companion  of  Cook,  and  the  President  of  the 
Royal  Society.  Owing  to  his  representations,  the  King 
allowed  his  astronomer  £2000  for  the  construction  of 
the  telescope,  and  afterwards  £2000  more  to  complete 
it,  with  £200  a  year  for  necessary  repairs,  painting, 
ropes,  etc.,  and  men's  wages,  and  £50  a  year  of  pension 
for  Caroline.  When  Caroline  Herschel  records  these 
handsome  allowances  from  the  King,  she  expresses  no 
thankfulness,  though  her  own  personal  expenses  for 
seven  years  previous  had  not  amounted  to  more  than 
£8  a  year !  But  she  had  cause  to  complain.  "  I 
never  felt  satisfied,"  she  writes  in  1827,  "  with  the 
support  your  father  received  towards  his  under- 
takings, and  far  less  with  the  ungracious  manner 
in  which  it  was  granted.  For  the  last  sum  came  with 
a  message  that  more  must  never  be  asked  for."  One 
of  the  requests  was  a  small  salary  for  her  as  assistant 
to  her  brother.  The  sum  granted  was  £50  a  year. 
For  nine  quarters  it  was  left  unpaid  !  It  is  perhaps 
matter  of  regret  that  she  wrote  as  she  did  of  the 
shabbiness  of  the  pension  allowed  to  her  brother.  She 
did  the  King  a  grave  injustice.  And  she  forgot, 
besides,  that  while  the  King  paid  £4000  for  the  tele- 
scope,1 and  allowed  £200  a  year  for  upkeep  and  wages, 
the  instrument  remained  her  brother's  private  pro- 
perty. William  Herschel  shows  no  trace  of  the 
grumbling,  cynical  spirit  of  his  sister.  He  knew 
how  handsomely  he  had  been  treated.  At  the  same 
time  there  is  a  most  amusing  raciness  about  her  view 

1  Letter  from  Sir  John  Herschel,  March  13,  1847  :  Weld's  History  of 
the  Royal  Society,  ii.  193, 


DIFFICULTIES  WITH  WORKPEOPLE     115 

of   the  building  of   this  grand  instrument,  which  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  overlook. 

Caroline  Herschel  had  difficulties  with  servants  from 
her  earliest  days  of  housekeeping.  No  one  pleased  her ; 
whether  because,  having  been  intended  for  a  household 
drudge  herself  by  her  mother  and  her  brother  Jacob, 
she  was  too  exacting  when  it  came  to  her  turn  to  lord 
it  over  others,  or  from  the  ignorance  and  disregard  to 
right  of  the  class  servants  were  drawn  from,  we  cannot 
tell.  But  her  account  of  the  workmen  whom  her 
brother  employed  on  the  great  telescope  paints  the 
employed  of  those  days  in  colours  more  black,  and 
more  incredible,  than  we  are  warranted  in  receiving 
without  scruple.  For  some  weeks  in  the  summer  of  1786 
she  was  left  in  charge  at  Slough,  while  her  brother  was 
absent  in  Hanover  on  a  scientific  mission  from  the 
King,  charged  in  fact  with  conveying  to  the  University 
of  Gottingen  a  10-feet  reflector,  constructed  by  Her- 
schel, and  presented  by  the  King  for  the  Observatory, 
which  had  already  taken  high  rank  in  Europe.  "  There 
were  no  less  than  thirty  or  forty  of  my  brother's  work- 
people," she  writes,  "at  work  for  upwards  of  three 
months  together,  some  employed  in  felling  and  rooting 
out  trees,  some  digging  and  preparing  the  ground  for 
the  bricklayers  who  were  laying  the  foundation  for  the 
telescope,  and  the  carpenter  in  Slough,  with  all  his 
men.  The  smith,  meanwhile,  was  converting  a  wash- 
house  into  a  forge,  and  manufacturing  complete  sets 
of  tools  for  the  work  he  was  to  enter  on.  ...  In  short, 
the  place  was  a  complete  workshop  for  making  optical 
instruments,  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to  go  into  it  to  see 
how  attentively  the  men  listened  to  and  executed  their 
master's  orders." 


n6         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

This  is  one  and  a  pleasingly  picturesque  side  of  the 
medal,  that  might  have  been  struck  to  commemorate 
the  building  of  the  great  reflector.  But  another  and 
an  almost  incredible  other  side  is  presented  on  the 
same  page  of  her  Memoirs.  "  I  cannot  leave  this 
subject,"  she  says,  "without  regretting,  even  twenty 
years  after,  that  so  much  labour  and  expense  should 
have  been  thrown  away  on  a  swarm  of  pilfering  work- 
people, both  men  and  women,  with  which  Slough,  I 
believe,  was  particularly  infested.  For  at  last  every- 
thing that  could  be  carried  away  was  gone,  and  nothing 
but  rubbish  left.  Even  tables  for  the  use  of  work- 
rooms vanished :  one  in  particular  I  remember,  the 
drawer  of  which  was  filled  with  slips  of  experiments 
made  on  the  rays  of  light  and  heat,  was  lost  out 
of  the  room  in  which  the  women  had  been  ironing. 
...  It  required  my  utmost  exertion  to  rescue  the 
manuscripts  in  hand  from  destruction  by  falling  into 
unhallowed  hands  or  being  devoured  by  mice."  A 
nest  of  savage  South  Sea  islanders,  lifting  whatever 
they  could  carry  away  from  a  house  within  two  or 
three  miles  of  Windsor  Castle  in  the  end  of  last  cen- 
tury may  be  an  accurate  picture  of  the  ways  and 
manners  of  English  workpeople  then,  but  it  is 
pardonable  to  receive  it  with  a  smile  of  incredulity, 
and  to  imagine  other  reasons  for  the  alleged  pil- 
fering. 

Servants  seem  to  have  been  a  cross  which  Caroline 
Herschel  never  could  bear  with  an  equal  mind.  In 
1831,  when  she  was  eighty-one,  she  was  as  hard  to 
satisfy  as  in  1772,  when  she  was  only  twenty-two: 
"  The  first  thing  my  radical  servant  did  when  she  came 
to  me  was  to  break  the  bottle  containing  the  ink  of  my 


HERSCHEL'S   INGENUITY  117 

own  making,  which  was  to  have  lasted  me  all  my  life- 
time."1 

The  ingenuity  of  the  appliances  for  ensuring  stability 
and  lightening  labour  in  consulting  the  telescope  was  a 
monument  to  the  mechanical  genius  of  Herschel,  in 
keeping  with  the  greatness  of  the  mirror.  These 
appliances  are  now  things  of  the  past,  not  to  be  re- 
peated by  any  future  adventurer  in  the  fields  of 
research,  but  none  the  less  worthy  of  respectful  regard 
even  in  this  age  of  engineers.  They  were  not  successful 
in  making  a  cumbrous  machine  so  light  and  easy  to 
handle  as  science  required,  but  that  is  only  saying  that 
the  necessity  for  this  preceded  the  discovery  of  the 
means  of  doing  it,  and  that  the  first  attempts  were 
inferior  to  those  made  later.  The  iron  tube,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  lay  the  colossal  eye  that  looked 
heavenwards,  was  39  feet  4  inches  in  length  and  4  feet 
10  inches  in  diameter.  It  was  an  unwieldy  and  far 
from  necessary  addition  to  the  structure,  enough  to 
cause  error  in  observations  by  its  ton-weight  and 
instability.  He  had  also  to  make  arrangements  for 
conveying  observers  and  visitors  from  the  ground  to 
the  gallery,  30  feet  high  or  more,  to  whom  ladders 
would  have  been  difficult  or  dangerous.  A  chair-lift 
was  devised,  but  was  never  erected.  So  easy  did  he 
find  the  ladders,  and  such  was  his  agility  at  sixty  and 
seventy  years  of  age,  that  he  preferred  to  reach  or 
leave  his  post  of  observation  by  running  up  or  down 
them.  Among  other  requirements  was  a  means  of 
communicating  readily  and  at  once  from  his  lofty 
perch  both  with  the  recorder  of  observations,  whose 

1  March  1831,  Memoirs,  p.  244.  Compare  this  with  the  "hot-headed 
old  Welshwoman  "  of  1772,  p.  33. 


n8         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

duty  was,  under  cover  of  a  roof,  to  watch  the  clock, 
and  to  enter  the  measurements  or  remarks  of  the 
observer,  as  well  as  with  the  workman  in  attendance. 
A  "  speaking-pipe,"  as  it  was  then  called,  of  variable 
length  to  suit  changes  in  his  position,  but  115  feet  long 
at  the  most,  was  devised  and  fitted  up.  Usually  his 
sister  Caroline  was  the  recorder  who  did  the  work,  all- 
night  work  at  times. 

The  mechanical  skill  shown  in  the  construction  of 
the  telescope  was  proved  sixty  years  after  by  Herschel's 
distinguished  son,  Sir  John,  in  a  letter  already  re- 
ferred to,  dated  March  13,  1847 :  "  The  woodwork  of 
the  telescope  being  so  far  decayed  as  to  be  dangerous, 
in  the  year  1839, 1  pulled  it  down  (the  operation  com- 
menced on  December  5),  and  having  cleared  away  the 
framework,  etc.,  piers  were  erected  on  which  the  tube 
was  placed,  that  being  of  iron,  and  so  well  preserved, 
that  although  not  more  than  one-twentieth  of  an  inch 
thick,  when  in  the  horizontal  position  it  sustained 
within  it  all  my  family,  and  continues  to  sustain 
enclosed  within  it  to  this  day,  not  only  the  heavier  of 
the  two  reflectors,  but  also  all  the  more  important 
portions  of  the  machinery,  such  as  being  of  iron  and 
brass  stood  in  no  fear  of  decay,  as  well  as  all  such 
portions  of  the  polishing  apparatus  as  would  go  into  it, 
to  the  amount,  I  presume,  of  a  great  many  tons,  which 
had,  when  I  last  saw  it,  produced  no  sign  of  weakness 
or  sagging  down.  This  great  strength  and  resistance 
to  decay  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  peculiar  prin- 
ciple of  its  internal  structure,  which  is,  in  effect,  very 
similar  to  that  for  which,  in  later  times,  a  patent 
has  been  taken  out  under  the  name  of  Corrugated 
Iron  Roofing,  etc.,  but  of  which  the  idea  was,  I 


ACCIDENTS  IN  WORKING  119 

have  every  reason  to  believe,  original  with  my  father 
at  the  time  of  its  construction;  as  was,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  think,  also  the  system  of  triangular 
arrangement  adopted  in  the  woodwork,  being  a 
perfect  system  of  'diagonal  bracing,'  or  rather  that 
principle  to  which  the  'diagonal  bracing'  system 
owes  its  strength. 

"The  other  mirror  and  the  rest  of  the  polishing 
apparatus  are  on  the  premises,  but  in  a  situation 
adapted  only  for  preservation,  and  neither  for  use  nor 
inspection.  The  iron  grinding  tools  and  polishers  are 
placed  underneath  the  tube,  let  into  the  ground,  and 
level  with  the  surface  of  the  gravelled  area  in  which  it 
stands."  l 

The  duty  of  attending  to  machinery  and  mirrors,  in 
an  observatory  such  as  Herschel's,  was  not  free  from 
danger.  Even  visitors  had  to  take  the  risk  of  an 
accident  in  satisfying  their  curiosity.  Piazzi  of  Pal- 
ermo, the  discoverer  of  the  first  asteroid,  "  did  not  go 
home  without  getting  broken  shins,"  Caroline  writes. 
And  she  adds,  "I  could  give  a  pretty  long  list  of 
accidents  which  were  near  proving  fatal  to  my  brother 
as  well  as  myself." 2  One  of  these  accidents  she  does 
record.  It  was  on  December  31,  1783 :  "  The  evening 
had  been  cloudy,  but  about  ten  o'clock  a  few  stars 
became  visible,  and  in  the  greatest  hurry  all  was  got 
ready  for  observing.  My  brother,  at  the  front  of  the 
telescope,  directed  me  to  make  some  alteration  in  the 
lateral  motion,  which  was  done  by  machinery,  on  which 
the  point  of  support  of  the  tube  and  mirror  rested.  At 
each  end  of  the  machine  or  trough  was  an  iron  hook, 

1  Weld,  Histoi-y,  etc.,  ii.  193. 

2  See  especially,  Memoirs,  p.  168. 


120         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

such  as  butchers  use  for  hanging  their  joints  upon,  and 
having  to  run  in  the  dark  on  ground  covered  a  foot 
deep  with  melting  snow,  I  fell  on  one  of  these  hooks, 
which  entered  my  right  leg  above  the  knee.  My 
brother's  call,  '  Make  haste  ! '  I  could  only  answer  by 
a  pitiful  cry,  '  I  am  hooked ! '  He  and  the  work- 
men were  instantly  with  me,  but  they  could  not  lift 
me  without  leaving  two  ounces  of  my  flesh  behind. 
.  .  .  At  the  end  of  six  weeks  I  began  to  have  some 
fears  about  my  poor  limb.  ...  I  had,  however,  the 
comfort  to  know  that  my  brother  was  no  loser  through 
this  accident,  for  the  remainder  of  the  night  was 
cloudy."  The  compensation  she  urges,  in  extenuation 
of  the  accident,  by  its  drollery  almost  makes  us  forget 
its  gravity.  Once  also  when  her  "  brother  was  elevated 
fifteen  feet  or  more  on  a  temporary  cross-beam  instead 
of  a  safe  gallery,"  a  very  high  wind  so  shook  the 
apparatus  that  "  he  had  hardly  touched  the  ground 
before  the  whole  of  it  came  down."  If  accidents  so 
serious  happened  before  the  heavier  and  more  cumbrous 
machinery  of  the  40-feet  telescope  was  erected,  we 
may  be  certain  that  Herschel's  mechanical  skill  did  not 
avail  to  prevent  them  in  the  working  of  the  great 
telescope. 

If  Herschel  had  done  nothing  more  for  science  than 
build  this  great  telescope  he  would  have  amply  earned 
the  high  eulogium  graven  on  his  tombstone  at  Upton, 
"  The  barriers  of  the  heavens  he  broke  through,  penetrat- 
ing as  well  as  exploring  their  more  remote  spaces." 
Nothing  to  compare  with  it  had  been  seen  before.  It 
was  a  wonder  that  the  gravest  man  of  science  regarded 
with  deepest  admiration,  and  children  at  school  looked 
on  with  awe  in  the  pictures  of  it  seen  on  the  pages  of 


VALUE  OF  THE  GREAT  TELESCOPE      121 

books  they  read.  But  the  spirit  of  a  wholesome 
rivalry,  which  it  awoke  in  many  bosoms,  did  more  for 
astronomy  than  its  builder  or  it  ever  did.  It  was  the 
origin  of  other  instruments  of  the  same  kind,  as  grand 
as  itself  or  even  grander.  Some  men  of  science, 
waspishly  inclined  perhaps,  denounced  the  great 
telescope  as  of  no  use.  Both  in  England  and  on 
the  Continent  this  was  said,  and  most  unfairly,  as 
everyone  who  reads  Herschel's  papers  may  discover 
for  himself.  He  has  frankly  and  fully  explained  in 
his  writings 1  why  he  preferred  to  use  other  and  smaller 
telescopes,  and  perhaps  to  use  them  oftener,  but  his 
love  for  and  his  pride  in  this  work  of  his  hands  is  ever 
and  again  coming  to  the  front.  One  instance  alone 
deserves  to  be  quoted  as  a  specimen :  "  I  saw  the 
fourth  satellite  and  the  ring  of  Saturn  in  the  40-feet 
speculum  without  an  eye-glass." 2 

But  it  was  seldom  that  astronomers  on  the  Con- 
tinent followed  the  example  of  William  Herschel  or 
gave  themselves  the  trouble  he  took.  Some  of  them 
did.  Of  "  Professor  Amici,  an  artist  and  a  man  of 
science  of  the  first  rank,"  his  son,  Sir  John  Her- 
schel, writes :  "  He  is  the  only  man  who  has,  since 
my  father,  bestowed  great  pains  on  the  construction  of 
specula,  and  his  10-foot  telescopes  with  12-inch  mirrors 
are  of  very  extraordinary  perfection."  This  was 
true  at  the  time  it  was  written,  two  years  after  his 
father's  death.  It  did  not  remain  true,  for  Lord  Rosse's 
great  6-feet  mirror  and  56-feet  tube  had  still  to 
come.  And  like  Herschel,  Lord  Rosse  was  his  own 
workman.  When  visiting  him  at  Birr  Castle  in  1862, 

1  Phil.  Trans.,  1815,  p.  295. 

3  Phil.  Trans.,  1791,  p.  76  (October  10). 


122         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Nassau  Senior  relates  that  "the  smaller  speculum  of 
the  great  telescope  had  been  broken,  and  no  one  except 
Lord  Rosse  himself  could  polish  it,  which  he  had  not 
yet  had  time  to  do ;  but  we  have  been  able  to  use  the 
3-feet  reflector." x  The  necessity  of  this  personal 
labour  from  the  owner  himself,  hard  manual  labour, 
was  one  great  drawback  to  the  value  of  these  magnifi- 
cent instruments. 

Kings  and  princes  and  men  of  science  paid  handsome 
sums  to  Herschel  for  telescopes  made  by  his  own  hand. 
While  the  great  telescope  was  in  progress,  George  in. 
presented  the  Observatory  of  Gottingen  with  a  reflector, 
which  Herschel  took  to  Hanover  along  with  his  brother. 
He  also  ordered  other  10-feet  for  himself,  and  many 
7-feet  besides  had  been  bespoke;  but  the  finest  and 
costliest  was  one  for  the  King  of  Spain,  ordered  in  1796 
and  not  sent  off  till  October  1801.  It  cost  £3150. 
Other  two  for  the  Prince  of  Canino  brought  £2310. 
But  this  was  telescope-selling,  not  star-observing.  It 
cost  time  and  trouble,  that  might  have  been  devoted  to 
better  purpose.  No  wonder  that  his  sister  grumbled. 
She  was  hindered  in  her  proper  work  by  the  packing 
of  the  Spanish  reflector,  "  which  was  done  at  the  barn 
and  rickyard  at  Upton,  her  room  being  all  the  while 
filled  with  the  optical  apparatus." 2  It  was  small  satis- 
faction to  her  that  the  University  of  Edinburgh  con- 
ferred the  degree  of  LL.D.  on  her  brother  in  1786.  She 
did  not  consider  that  reward  at  all  equal  to  his  merits. 
She  echoed  the  words  of  General  Komarzewski,  spoken 
by  him  probably  in  fun,  but  received  by  her  in  earnest, 
that  Herschel  should  be  honoured  as  the  Duke  of 

1  Journals,  etc.,  relating  to  Ireland,  ii.  247. 

2  Memoirs,  p.  110. 


A  WALK  THROUGH  THE  TUBE      123 

Slough.  He  did  not  even  get  a  knighthood  from  his 
Royal  patron.  In  1816  he  was  made  a  Hanoverian 
Knight  by  the  Prince  Regent;  traders,  slave-holders, 
moneyed  men  of  all  classes  were  raised  to  the  peerage, 
but  brain  power  was  then  less  esteemed  for  the  bestowal 
of  worldly  rank. 

Before  the  tube  was  fitted  with  the  great  mirror, 
many  of  the  visitors  who  flocked  to  see  William 
Herschel  had  the  curiosity  to  walk  through  it. 
Among  them  was  the  King.  Close  behind  him  was 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  found  it  difficult 
to  proceed,  till  the  King  turned  to  give  him  his  hand, 
saying,  "  Come,  my  Lord  Bishop,  I  will  show  you  the 
way  to  heaven." 

An  invitation  from  Mr.  Herschel  to  walk  through 
the  tube,  as  it  lay  on  the  ground,  was  not  uncommon. 
Miss  Burney  and  the  party  she  was  with  accepted  the 
invitation.  "  It  held  me  quite  upright,"  she  says, ' '  and 
without  the  least  inconvenience;  so  would  it  have 
done  had  I  been  dressed  in  feathers  and  a  bell  hoop — 
such  is  its  circumference.  Mr.  Smelt  led  the  way, 
walking  also  upright ;  and  my  father  followed.  After 
we  were  gone,  the  Bishop  [of  Worcester]  and  Dr. 
Douglas  were  tempted,  for  its  oddity,  to  make  the 
same  promenade."1  Evidently  the  Church  was  not 
disposed,  in  those  days  at  least,  to  look  Heaven  in  the 
face. 

While  the  greater  tube  of  Lord  Rosse's  telescope 
was  lying  in  readiness  to  receive  its  greater  mirror, 
visitors  were  also  in  the  habit  of  walking  through 
it,  sixty  years  later.  The  Dean  of  Ely,  a  well-known 
mathematician,  and  a  man  of  more  than  the  common 
1  Letters,  iii.  262. 


I24         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

height,  is  said  to  have  walked  through  with  his 
umbrella  up.  The  days  of  these  gigantic  tubes  are 
past.  The  career  of  Herschel's  40-feet  was  inaugur- 
ated by  a  concert  held  within  the  tube,  just  as 
its  end  was  celebrated  half  a  century  afterwards. 
" '  God  save  the  King '  was  sung  in  it  by  the  whole 
company,  who  got  up  from  dinner,  and  went  into 
the  tube,  among  the  rest  two  Misses  Stow,  the  one  a 
famous  pianoforte  player,  some  of  the  Griesbachs,  who 
accompanied  on  the  oboe,  or  any  instrument  they 
could  get  hold  of,  and  I,"  Caroline  in  her  ninetieth 
year  continues,  "  you  will  easily  imagine,  was  one  of 
the  nimblest  and  foremost  to  get  in  and  out  of  the 
tube.  But  now  ! — lack-a-day  ! — I  can  hardly  cross 
the  room  without  help."  She  was  then  a  giddy  girl 
of  only  thirty-seven  !  But  when  the  concert  was  held 
in  the  tube  at  the  end  of  the  great  telescope's  career, 
she  was  in  Hanover,  never  destined  again  to  see  the 
noble  work  of  her  "  best  and  dearest  of  brothers." 

On  the  return  of  Sir  John  Herschel  from  South 
Africa  in  1838,  it  was  found  that  the  woodwork  of 
the  great  telescope  was  so  decayed  that  the  structure 
was  dangerous.  It  had  stood  exposed  to  wind  and 
weather  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  the  discovery 
of  its  unsafe  condition  was  made  on  the  centenary  of 
the  builder's  birth.  In  the  following  year  it  was  taken 
down,  and  on  New  Year's  Eve1  a  meeting  of  the 
Herschel  family  was  held  within  the  iron  tube,  then 
lowered  on  the  ground,  to  celebrate  the  end  of  the 
instrument.  Sir  John's  ballad  was  sung  that  night, 
and  is  now  preserved  as  a  printed  broadside  among 

1  Said  in  the  Memoirs  to  have  been  at  Christmas  (p.  310).  Different 
in  Arago,  Biographies,  171. 


REQUIEM  OF  THE  GREAT  TELESCOPE     125 

other  relics  of  a  famous  past  in  the  Royal  Observatory 
at  Greenwich. 


THE  HERSCHELIAN  TELESCOPE  SoNG1 

Requiem  of  the  Forty-feet  Reflector  at  Slough,  to  be  sung  on  the 
New  Year's  Eve,  1839-40,  by  Papa,  Mama,  Madame,  and  all 
the  Little  Bodies  in  the  tube  thereof  assembled  : — 

In  the  old  Telescope's  tube  we  sit, 

And  the  shades  of  the  past  around  us  flit; 

His  requiem  sing  we,  with  shout  and  with  din, 

While  the  old  year  goes  out  and  the  new  one  comes  in. 

Chorus  of  Youths  and  Virgiiis. 

Merrily,  merrily,  let  us  all  sing, 

And  make  the  old  Telescope  rattle  and  ring. 

Full  fifty  years  did  he  laugh  at  the  storm, 
And  the  blast  could  not  shake  his  majestic  form  ; 
Now  prone  he  lies  where  he  once  stood  high, 
And  searched  the  deep  heavens  with  his  broad  bright  eye. 
Merrily,  merrily,  &c. 

There  are  wonders  no  living  wight  hath  seen, 
Which  within  this  hollow  have  pictured  been  ; 
Which  mortal  record  can  ne'er  recall, 
And  are  known  to  Him  only  who  makes  them  all. 
Merrily,  merrily,  &c. 

Here  watched  our  father  the  wintry  Night, 
And  his  gaze  hath  been  fed  with  pre- Adamite  light ; 
While  planets  above  him  in  mystic 2  dance 
Sent  down  on  his  toils  a  propitious  glance. 
Merrily,  merrily,  &c. 

1  Weld,  History  of  the  Royal  Society,  ii.  195. 

2  ?  circular. 


126          HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

He  has  stretched  him  quietly  down  at  length, 
To  bask  in  the  starlight  his  giant  strength ; 
And  Time  shall  here  a  tough l  morsel  find, 
For  his  steel-devouring  teeth  to  grind. 
Merrily,  merrily,  &c. 

He  will  grind  it  at  last,  as  grind  it  he  must, 
And  its  brass  and  its  iron  shall  be  clay  and  dust ; 
But  scathless  ages2  shall  roll  away, 
And  nurture  its  frame  in  its  form's  decay. 
Merrily,  merrily,  &c. 

A  new  year  dawns  and  the  old  year's  past, 
God  send  us  a  happy  one  like  the  last, 
A  little  more  sun  and  a  little  less  rain, 
To  save  us  from  cough  and  rheumatic  pain. 
Merrily,  merrily,  &c. 

God  grant  that  its  end  this  group  may  find 
In  love  and  in  harmony  fondly  joined ; 
And  that  some  of  us  fifty  years  hence,  once  more, 
May  make  the  old  Telescope's  echoes  roar. 

Chorus,  fortissimo. 

Merrily,  merrily,  let  us  all  sing,' 

And  make  the  old  Telescope  rattle  and  ring. 

Where  the  great  telescope  raised  its  eye  heaven- 
ward, a  church  has  been  built  to  direct  men's  thoughts 
to  do  what  brother  and  sister  long  did  in  loving 
fellowship,  "mind  the  heavens."  It  was  a  fitting 
consecration  of  the  hallowed  ground.  In  speaking  of 
his  magnificent  work  in  1813,  Herschel  said  to  Thomas 
Campbell  the  poet,  "  with  an  air,  not  of  the  least  pride, 
but  with  a  greatness  and  simplicity  of  expression  that 
struck  me  with  wonder,  'I  have  looked  farther  into 
?  rough.  3  ?  rays. 


THE  REFRACTOR  AT  DORPAT   127 

space  than  ever  human  being  did  before  me.  I  have 
observed  stars,  of  which  the  light  takes  two  millions 
of  years  to  travel  to  this  globe.' "  The  Church  is  a 
telescope  that  looks,  or  should  look,  even  farther  into 
space  and  time. 

While  Herschel  was  giving  life  and  power  to  the 
reflecting  telescope,  Dollond's  followers  in  this  country 
and  Fraunhofer  in  Germany  were  restoring  the  re- 
fractor to  the  place  from  which  it  had  been  deposed. 
In  1825  the  finest  refractor  that,  up  to  that  time,  the 
world  had  ever  seen  was  erected  for  Struve  at  the 
expense  of  the  Russian  Government  in  Dorpat.  The 
tube  was  13  feet  in  length,  and  the  object-glass  was 
9  Paris  inches  in  diameter.  The  weight  of  the 
whole  was  about  3000  Russian  pounds.  Of  his  first 
look  through  it  Struve  says:  "I  stood  astonished 
before  this  beautiful  instrument,  undetermined  which 
to  admire  most,  the  beauty  and  elegance  of  the  work- 
manship in  its  most  minute  parts,  the  propriety  of  its 
construction,  the  ingenious  mechanism  for  moving  it,  or 
the  incomparable  optical  power  of  the  telescope,  and 
the  precision  with  which  objects  are  defined."1  He 
was  proud  of  his  assistant.  He  believed  it  to  be  the 
equal  of  Herschel's  40-f  eet  reflector,  and  it  was  certainly 
far  more  easy  to  work.  With  its  help  he  continued 
the  work  Herschel  began.  It  appears,  however,  that 
Herschel  sometimes  used  a  parabolical  glass  mirror  of 
7 -feet  focal  length  instead  of  the  metal  mirror,2  avoiding 
by  reflection  the  colours  due  to  refraction.  This 
should  be  remembered  to  his  credit. 

1  Astronom.  Trans,  ii.  94.  2  Phil.  Trans,  for  1803,  p.  228, 


CHAPTER   VIII 

"THE   CONSTRUCTION   OF  THE   HEAVENS"1 

THE  writer  who  described  Herschel's  papers  as  "  lively 
and  amusing "  may  have  intended  a  sneer,  but  he  did 
a  great  wrong  to  inquiries  and  facts  as  novel  as  they 
were  inspiring.  Whatever  helps  to  lift  man's  thoughts 
above  the  littlenesses  of  life  and  time  is  a  distinct  gain 
to  the  human  race,  altogether  irrespective  of  the  uses 
to  which,  in  course  of  time,  it  may  be  applied. 
Herschel's  papers  on  The  Construction  of  the  Heavens 
were  of  this  nature.  They  were  among  the  first  he 
wrote ;  they  were  also  among  the  last.  He  wrote  at 
least  eight  papers  on  the  subject,  covering  three 
hundred  and  thirty  quarto  pages :  he  began  the 
series*  in  1784,  he  finished  it  in  1818,  and  he  left 
the  work  as  a  legacy  to  his  son,  who  nobly  honoured 
his  father's  memory  by  doing  for  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere what  the  father  did  for  the  northern.  Even 
though  these  labours  had  been  nothing  more  than  an 
attempt  on  man's  part  to  penetrate  the  workshop  of 

1  This  is  Herschel's  own  phrase,  taken  probably  from  the  notice  of 
Ptolemy's  Almagest  (145  A.D.)  in  Lalande's  Astronomy  (1771  A.D.), 
where  its  title  is  given  in  Latin,  Magna  Construct™  (i.  156).  The 
phrase  does  not  deserve  the  condemnation  it  received  from  an  Edin- 
burgh Reviewer  in  January  1803  ;  but  a  later  Reviewer  accepts  it  in 
July  1848,  "to  use  a  phrase  which  Sir  "W.  Herschel  introduced" 
(p,  105).  " Introduced"  is  scarcely  correct, 

128 


FIXED  STAR  A  MISNOMER          129 

nature  and  ascertain  the  hidden  processes  of  an 
Almighty  Worker,  they  would  have  been  invaluable 
as  a  serviceable  hypothesis  for  future  efforts.  Boldly 
and  with  all  reverence,  he  set  himself  to  open  the 
closed  hand  of  Almighty  Wisdom,  and  find  what  that 
Power  had  kept  hid.  Others  laboured  in  this  cause 
before  him,  but  "  we  are  indebted  solely  to  the  genius 
and  industry  of  Dr.  Herschel  for  perfecting  their 
sagacious  views,  and  supporting  them  by  a  body  of 
evidence  amounting  nearly  to  demonstration."1 

The  first  point  he  laid  down  was  that  there  is 
ample  reason  "strongly  to  suspect  that  there  is  not, 
in  strictness  of  speaking,  one  fixed  star  in  the 
heavens."  Fixed  stars  is  a  name  we  have  been  led 
to  use,  because,  unlike  the  planets  or  wanderers, 
they  seem  never  to  change  their  places  in  the  sky ; 
but  absolute  rest  in  any  one  of  these  stars  is  im- 
possible except,  it  may  be,  as  a  result  of  nicely 
balanced  forces.  Herschel  was  beginning  in  1783  A.D. 
at  the  same  starting-point  as  the  famous  Hipparchus 
nearly  two  thousand  years  before,  who  "  observed  a 
new  star  which  appeared  in  his  own  day,  and  which 
led  him  to  believe  that  the  same  thing  might  happen 
frequently,  and  that  the  stars  considered  fixed  might 
be  in  motion."  2  The  proper  motion,  as  it  is  called,  of 
some  of  the  brightest  stars  was  suspected  nearly  a 
century  before  Herschel's  time  and  was  afterwards 
fully  proved.  What  the  nature  of  that  motion  may 
be,  might  be  guessed  by  astronomers,  but  was  really 

1  Sir  David  Brewster  in  his  edition  of  Ferguson's  Astronomy  (1823), 
ii.  298.    He  is  referring  specially  to  nebulae,  of  which  Herschel  ' '  observed 
the  position,  magnitude,  and  structure  of  no  fewer  than  2500," 

2  Lalande,  i.  152  ;  Pliny,  ii.  26. 

9 


130         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

a  fruitful  field  for  genius  and  perseverance  to  culti- 
vate. "  Its  causes  and  laws  are  hid  for  the  present 
in  almost  equal  obscurity,"  was  the  judgment  of  Dr. 
Maskelyne,  then  Astronomer- Royal ;  but  it  pointed  to 
changes  among  the  stars,  which  a  shrewd  observer 
would  endeavour  to  ascertain  and  account  for. 
Herschel  undertook  the  work.  Availing  himself  of  a 
catalogue  of  2884  stars  published  in  1723  by  Flam- 
steed,  the  first  Astronomer-Royal,  he  compared  the 
heavens  of  his  own  day  with  the  appearance  they 
presented  then.  He  had  no  star  charts  such  as 
astronomers  have  since  constructed,  and  which,  when 
compared  with  a  revised  edition  a  century  hence,  may 
reveal  much  that  is  at  present  dark  regarding  the 
motions  and  destiny  of  the  small  but  beautiful  home 
of  our  shortlived  race.  He  had  no  photographic 
plates  to  expose  or  consult.  From  beginning  to  end 
it  was  eye-labour  and  hand-labour  with  this  intrepid 
traveller  among  these  far-away  suns.  So  laborious 
was  the  comparison  that  he  had  "many  a  night,  in 
the  course  of  eleven  or  twelve  hours  of  observation, 
carefully  and  singly  examined  not  less  than  400 
celestial  objects,  besides  taking  measures  of  angles 
and  positions  of  some  of  them  with  proper  micro- 
meters, and  sometimes  viewing  a  particular  star  for 
half  an  hour  together,  with  all  the  various  powers  of 
his  telescope."  During  that  interval  of  sixty  years  he 
found  that  stars  -had  been  lost  or  had  vanished,  that 
they  had  undergone  some  capital  change  of  position  or 
magnitude,  or  had  come  into  sight  where  they  were 
not  previously  seen,  although  "  it  is  not  easy  to  prove 
a  star  to  be  newly  come "  into  any  part  of  the  sky. 
If  a  star  suddenly  shone  out  so  as  to  attract  the  eyes 


VARIABLE  AND  LOST  STARS         131 

of  the  common  people,  where  a  practised  observer  was 
sure  there  was  no  star  visible  an  hour  or  two  before, 
was  he  to  conclude  that  it  had  flared  up  as  if  it  were 
on  fire,  and  that  it  would  go  out  as  the  fire  died  down  ? 
Or,  if  he  saw  a  star  brightening,  paling,  going  out,  and 
brightening  again  every  three  or  four  days,  or  weeks 
or  months,  or  every  three  or  four  years,  was  he  to 
infer  that  dark  bodies  of  vast  size  were  thrusting 
themselves  between  that  distant  sun  and  our  eyes, 
eclipsing  it,  in  fact;  or  that  immense  reaches  of  un- 
lighted  space,  or  dark  regions  on  its  surface,  were 
turned  for  a  time  towards  us,  as  it  revolved  on  its 
axis?  Dark  spots  on  a  sunny  star's  surface  and  a 
rotation  more  or  less  rapid  were  the  causes  accepted 
by  Herschel  from  previous  astronomers  for  this  change 
of  brightness  in  what  are  called  changing  or  variable 
stars.  He  examined  seven  that  were  then  known. 
Their  periods  were  3,  5,  6,  7,  331,  394,  and  497  days.1 
He  felt,  however,  that  his  views  were  discredited  by 
the  sudden  bound  from  7  days  to  331.  Unless  a  star 
were  found  bridging  the  gulf  between  these  two,  he 
would  not  have  had  confidence  to  give  his  theory  to 
the  world.  But  the  star  a  Herculis  seemed  to  him 
to  bridge  the  gap,  and  satisfy  the  theory.  Its  period 
was  found  to  be  about  60  days.  These  and  other 
changes  on  the  face  of  the  heavens,  known  for  many 
years  and  registered  in  books,  formed  Herschel's  pre- 
lude to  the  work  he  had  set  his  heart  on,  The  Con- 
struction of  the  Heavens.  That  they  are  a  building, 
a  wonderful  temple  consecrated  to  Almighty  Power 
and  Wisdom,  he  never  doubted.  To  discover  the  plan 

1  Phil.    Trans.   (1796),    pp.    455-56.      Professor  Holden    gives  the 
numbers  as  3,  5,  6,  7,  334,  404,  and  494  (p.  133). 


132          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

on  which  the  All-wise  Worker  proceeded  was  his  aim 
and  ambition. 

Stars  had  been  seen  by  Flamsteed  which  Herschel 
could  no  longer  find.  A  century  had  elapsed,  and 
Herschel  put  these  stars  down  as  "  lost."  He  meant 
that  a  star  thus  noted  was  not  to  be  seen  when  he 
looked  for  it,  "  but  that  possibly  at  some  future  time, 
if  it  be  a  changeable  or  periodical  star,  it  may  come  to 
be  visible  again."  In  other  cases  he  entered  in  his 
journal  the  remark,  "  Does  not  exist,"  when  Flamsteed 
had  not  himself  seen  the  star.  Herschel,  however, 
does  not  appear  to  have  considered  that  these  "lost 
stars"  may  have  been  comets,  or  wanderers  like  his 
own  Uranus,  or  specks  like  the  numerous  body  of 
asteroids  and  satellites,  that  were  then  undiscovered. 
In  a  paper  written  at  a  later  period  he  found  that 
he  had  treated  as  faultless  a  catalogue  of  stars  which 
required  correction.  His  conclusions  regarding  lost 
or  changing  stars  were  thus  premature.  But  neither 
the  poetic  beauty  nor  the  possibility  of  a  "  lost "  star 
can  be  denied.  Perhaps  he  was  only  borrowing  a 
phrase  that  was  used  nearly  two  thousand  years 
earlier  by  Hipparchus,  who,  by  his  catalogue  of  the 
fixed  stars,  gave  future  generations  the  means  of 
ascertaining  "  if  stars  could  be  lost  and  reappear,  if 
they  changed  their  place,  their  size,  their  brightness." 

Dissatisfied  with  the  principles  on  which  stars 
visible  to  the  naked  eye  are  classed,  according  to 
their  brightness,  as  stars  of  the  first,  or  second  down 
to  the  sixth  magnitude,  he  began,  about  1782,  to 
adopt  a  new  and  more  effective  but  certainly  a  very 
laborious  method  of  settling  degrees  of  brightness 
among  the  stars,  and  of  determining  to  what  extent 


SUNS  IN  YOUTH  AND  OLD  AGE  133 

the  brightness  changed  from  year  to  year,  or  from 
age  to  age.  By  this  method  actual  inspection  would 
at  once  decide  whether  a  star  was  increasing  or 
diminishing  in  brightness  compared  with  other  stars. 
It  was  an  attempt  to  ascertain  the  advance  of  life 
or  the  vigour  of  youth,  the  beginnings  of  decay  or 
the  promise  of  a  long  continuance  of  brightness 
among  the  countless  suns  in  creation.  Of  the  import- 
ance of  these  investigations  he  entertained  no  doubt, 
nor  should  we.  "  The  great  number  of  alterations  of 
stars  that  we  are  certain  have  happened  within  the 
last  two  centuries,  and  the  much  greater  number 
that  we  have  reason  to  suspect  to  have  taken  place," 
are  curious  features  in  the  history  of  the  heavens, 
as  curious  as  the  slow  wearing  away  of  the  landmarks 
of  our  earth  on  mountains,  on  river  banks,  on  ocean 
shores.  "  If  we  consider  how  little  attention  has 
formerly  been  paid  to  this  subject,"  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "  and  that  most  of  the  observations  we  have 
are  of  a  very  late  date,  it  would  perhaps  not  appear 
extraordinary  were  we  to  admit  the  number  of 
alterations,  that  have  probably  happened  to  different 
stars,  to  be  a  hundred  ;  this  compared  with  the  number 
of  stars  that  have  been  examined,  with  a  view  to 
ascertain  their  changes,  which  we  can  hardly  rate 
at  three  thousand,1  will  give  us  a  proportion  of  1  to 

1  The  most  ancient  catalogue  of  the  stars  is  that  of  Ptolemy  (140  A.D.) 
of  Alexandria,  which  was  probably  a  revised  transcript  of  that  of 
Hipparchus  (160  B.C.).  It  contains  1022  stars.  Tycho's  catalogue 
(1572  A.D.)  contains  777  principal  stars,  to  which  Kepler  afterwards 
added  280,  taken  probably  from  Tycho's  own  manuscripts.  Hevelius 
(1690  A.D.)  published  a  catalogue  containing  950  stars  of  former  lists, 
603  observed  by  himself,  and  377  southern  stars  observed  by  Halley 
from  Saint  Helena.  "But  the  most  perfer-t  and  the  largest  catalogue 


134         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

30  ...  even  1  to  300  is  sufficiently  striking  to 
draw  our  attention."  These  were  the  words  of  a 
wise  observer,  uttered  long  before  geologists  had 
begun  to  use  similar  language  in  their  own  researches. 
The  conclusion  which  Herschel  drew  from  these 
alterations,  real  or  imagined,  in  the  light  of  the  stars 
was  that  they  will  "much  lessen  the  confidence  we 
have  hitherto  placed  upon  the  permanency  of  the  equal 
emission  of  light  of  our  sun.  Many  phenomena  in 
natural  history  seem  to  point  out  some  past  changes 
in  our  climates.  Perhaps  the  easiest  way  of  account- 
ing for  them  may  be  to  surmise  that  our  sun  has  been 
formerly  sometimes  more  and  sometimes  less  bright  than 
it  is  at  present.  At  all  events  it  will  be  highly  pre- 
sumptuous to  lay  any  great  stress  upon  the  stability  of 
the  present  order  of  things ;  and  many  hitherto  unac- 
countable varieties  that  happen  in,  our  seasons,  such  as  a 
general  severity  or  mildness  of  uncommon  winters  or 
burning  summers,  may  possibly  meet  with  an  easy  solu- 
tion in  the  real  inequality  of  the  sun's  rays."  If  our 
sun  be  a  variable  star  diffusing  heat  in  greater  or  less 
degrees  at  different  times,  or  if  it  be  a  star  growing 
old  and  burning  out,  the  credit  of  the  idea  as  well 
as  of  "  lost"  stars  in  the  ocean  of  infinitude  may  justly 
be  claimed,  in  our  day  at  least,  for  this  poetic  and 
musical  observer  of  the  heavens.  To  shed  a  ray  of 
light  on  this  question  of  sunshine  Herschel  sought, 
but  sought  in  vain,  for  temperatures  in  ages  that  were 
past.  He  could  get  none.  He  was  not  aware  of 
the  thermometers  made  by  the  school  of  Galileo 

which  had  been  made"  was  the  British  catalogue  published  by 
Flamsteed  in  1712,  and  afterwards  in  better  condition  in  1725.  It 
contains  about  3000  stars.  See  Lalande,  i.  284. 


OUR  SUN'S  VARIATIONS  OF  HEAT   135 

and  lost  to  sight  till  Libri  discovered  them,  and 
made  them  the  common  property  of  science.  But, 
resolved  not  to  be  baffled,  Herschel  turned  to  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  price  of  wheat  at  Windsor  as  an 
indication  of  the  warmth  or  coldness  of  the  sun's 
rays.  It  was  his  only  resource,  and  it  was  an  idea 
worthy  of  a  baffled  man  of  science.  But  critics  in 
the  highest  quarters  attacked  and  ridiculed  this  seeker 
after  truth  as  if  he  were  guilty  of  supreme  folly. 
Leaders  of  thought  in  every  branch  of  science  and 
in  every  department  of  life  have  to  bear  the  brunt 
of  ridicule  from  learned  ignorance ! l 

These  were  the  first  steps  taken  by  Herschel,  it  may 
be  said,  in  his  quest  after  the  plan  on  which  Almighty 
Wisdom  built  the  world  of  suns  and  systems.  A 
farther  step  forward  was  made  when  he  addressed 
himself  to  ascertain  the  motion  of  the  sun  and  solar 
system  through  space.  That  there  was  such  a  motion 
he  did  not  doubt.  Some  had  held  the  same  faith 
before  him;  astronomers  as  able  had  refused  it  a 
hearing.  He  converted  it  from  faith  to  fact.  What 
it  means  is  that  our  sun  with  his  most  distant  planet 
and  comet,  with  every  particle  of  matter  that  owns 
his  sway,  is  travelling  onward  through  space,  round 
a  centre  of  force  apparently,  and  constrained  by 
Newton's  law  of  gravitation.  Are  these  facts  or 
fancies,  leading  features  in  the  plan  of  creation  or 
dreams  of  a  mere  enthusiast?  Herschel  not  only 
believed  they  were  facts ;  he  set  himself  to  prove  it. 

1  The  tables  he  took  advantage  of  were  those  given  by  Adam  Smith 
in  The  Wealth  of  Nations.  The  ridicule  that  was  heaped  upon  him 
may  be  seen  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  in  a  letter  signed  J.  M., 
Scots  Magazine,  1807,  p.  329. 


136         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

When  he  had  proceeded  some  way  in  his  inquiries, 
he  received  from  a  friend  a  copy  of  a  catalogue  of 
eighty  stars  made  by  Mayer  of  Gottingen  in  1756, 
"and  compared  with  the  same  stars  as  given  by 
Roemer  in  1706."  Both  Roemer  and  Mayer  were  men 
of  the  highest  ability.  Previously  he  knew  this 
catalogue  only  in  an  extract  which  he  found  in  a 
French  book  on  astronomy.  Setting  to  work  on  the 
new  material  thus  furnished,  and  laying  aside  thirteen 
or  fourteen  of  the  stars  as  those  he  had  already 
examined,  he  separated  the  others  into  two  classes, 
those  which  went  for  his  view  of  a  motion  of  the 
sun  through  space,  and  those  whose  motions  "must 
be  ascribed  to  a  real  motion  in  the  stars  themselves." 
Mayer,  admirable  astronomer  though  Herschel  admitted 
him  to  be,  did  not  countenance  the  idea  of  a  motion 
of  the  sun  with  all  its  planets  through  space. 
"Were  it  so,"  he  wrote  in  1760,  "were  the  sun  and 
all  the  planets  and  our  home,  the  earth,  advancing 
towards  some  quarter,  all  the  stars  in  that  part  of 
the  heavens  would  seem  to  open  out,  and  those  in  the 
opposite  quarter  to  come  together,  just  as,  when  you 
are  walking  through  a  wood,  the  trees  which  are 
in  front  of  you  seem  to  separate  from  each  other, 
and  those  which  are  behind  to  draw  closer." 
Herschel,  seizing  on  Mayer's  illustration  of  trees  in 
a  wood,  declared  that  these  very  changes  were  taking 
place  among  stars  in  the  heavens.  At  the  same  time 
he  was  encouraged  by  a  short  tract  sent  him  by  the 
author,  Dr.  Alexander  Wilson,  Professor  of  Astronomy 
at  Glasgow,  and  printed  in  1777,  entitled  Thoughts 
on  General  Gravitation  and  Views  thence  arising  as  to 
the  State  of  the  Universe.  A  friendship  sprang  up 


'SUN'S  MOVEMENT  THROUGH  SPACE    137 

between  the  two  men,  and  Glasgow  seems  to  have 
become  a  favourite  place  of  summer  pilgrimage  to 
Herschel.  It  was  clear  that  he  was  favoured  by  the 
flowing  tide  of  scientific  thought.  He  took  it  at  the 
flood :  he  even  guided  it  into  the  channels  along 
which  it  has  since  flowed  in  an  ever  increasing 
volume.  It  "  is  an  arduous  task,"  he  said  of  this  quest 
after  our  solar  system's  movement  in  space,  "  which  we 
must  not  hope  to  see  accomplished  in  a  little  time  ;  but 
we  are  not  to  be  discouraged  from  the  attempt.  Let 
us,  at  all  events,  endeavour  to  lay  a  good  foundation 
for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us."  And  this 
good  foundation,  by  precept  and  example,  he  did  lay. 

With  the  boldness  of  a  man  who  had  confidence 
in  himself  and  his  instruments,  he  wrote :  "  I  think 
we  are  no  more  authorised  to  suppose  the  sun  at 
rest  than  we  should  be  to  deny  the  diurnal  motion 
of  the  earth,  except  in  this  respect,  that  the  proofs 
of  the  latter  are  very  numerous,  whereas  the  former 
rests  only  on  a  few,  though  capital  testimonies."  He 
founded  this  conclusion  on  a  discussion  of  the  motions 
observed  in  seven  of  the  principal  fixed  stars.  But 
in  support  of  his  view  he  also  quoted  a  table  of  the 
proper  motions  of  twelve  stars  in  fifty  years  given 
by  Lalande,  motion  in  the  two  directions  known  to 
astronomers  as  right  ascension  and  declination,  cor- 
responding to  longitude  and  latitude  on  the  earth. 
Twenty-seven  motions  altogether  had  to  be  accounted 
for.  On  the  hypothesis  of  a  general  movement  of 
the  solar  system  through  space,  twenty-two  out  of 
these  twenty-seven  movements  were  explained.  The 
five  exceptions  he  "  resolved  into  the  real  proper 
motion  of  the  stars."  He  did  not  then  know  whether 


138         HEkSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  motion  was  of  one  star  round  a  companion  star,  or 
round  some  far  greater  and  immensely  more  distant  sun. 

The  conclusion  which  Herschel  arrived  at  was  that 
the  whole  solar  system  was  at  that  time  moving  to- 
wards the  constellation  Hercules  in  the  northern  sky, 
and  that  the  star  "  X  Herculis  is  possibly  as  well  chosen 
as  any  we  can  fix  upon  in  that  part  of  the  heavens  " 
for  the  point  we  are  moving  towards.  He  modified 
this  view  in  1804  on  receiving  more  correct  measure- 
ments from  the  Astronomer  -  Royal :  "  It  will  be 
necessary  to  mention  that  I  have  no  longer  supposed 
the  solar  motion  to  be  directed  towards  X  Herculis. 
A  point  at  no  very  great  distance  from  this  star 
has  been  chosen."  As  the  direction  of  the  tangent  to 
the  sun's  orbit  is  constantly  changing,  this  change 
of  direction  from  age  to  age  is  unavoidable.  He 
did  not  attempt  to  estimate  precisely  the  rate  of 
motion,  but,  "  in  a  general  way,"  he  considered  that 
it  "cannot  certainly  be  less  than  that  which  the 
earth  has  in  her  annual  orbit."  At  the  same  time 
he  expected  that  future  astronomers  would  assist  him 
in  determining  the  direction  of  the  solar  motion ;  and 
he  added  that  he  had  "  begun  a  series  of  observations 
upon  several  zones  of  double  stars,"  with  the  view 
of  establishing  or  overturning  his  hypothesis.  His 
estimate  of  the  rate  of  the  sun's  motion  may  not 
be  correct.  Probably  it  is  only  from  five  to  nine 
miles  a  second,  or  less  than  half  what  he  made  it : 
but  science  has  accepted  his  view  of  the  point,  to 
which  the  solar  system  has,  for  an  hundred  years, 
been  advancing.  Recently  a  Lyrse  (Vega)  has  been 
claimed  as  the  point  we  are  now  making  for. 

In  the  years  that  followed  his  first  papers  on  The 


LABORATORIES  OF  THE  UNIVERSE   139 

Construction  of  the  Heavens,  Herschel,  with  wider 
views,  a  better  instrument,  and  a  clearer  insight 
into  what  he  considered  "the  Laboratories  of  the 
universe,  wherein  the  most  salutary  remedies  for  the 
decay  of  the  whole  are  prepared,"  essayed  a  bolder 
flight  into  a  world  of  "  things,  unattempted  yet  in 
prose  or  rhyme."  Stars,  clusters  of  stars,  and  nebulae 
were  the  building  stones,  so  to  speak,  out  of  which 
Almighty  Wisdom  constructed  the  starry  sphere 
around  our  earth.  How  many  of  them  exist,  what 
are  their  relations  to  each  other,  and  how  are  they 
arranged  in  space  ?  were  some  of  the  questions  to  which 
he  sought  an  answer.  When  he  began  the  work  of 
observation,  he  "  surmised  that  several  nebulae  might 
yet  remain  undiscovered  for  want  of  sufficient  light  to 
detect  them.  .  .  .  The  event  has  plainly  proved  that 
my  expectations  were  well  founded;  for  I  have 
already  found  466  new  nebulae  and  clusters  of  stars, 
none  of  which,  to  my  present  knowledge,  have  been 
seen  before  by  any  person."  Great  though  the  dis- 
covery was,  it  was  only  the  beginning  of  others 
still  greater.  These  nebulae  or  little  white  clouds 
were  similar  to  the  Milky  Way  in  the  colour  of  their 
light,  but  apparently  of  immensely  less  extent.  The 
first  known  of  them,  properly  so  called,  was  that  of 
Andromeda,  to  which  the  attention  of  astronomers 
was  directed  by  Simon  Marius  in  1612.  Others 
were  seen  and  recorded  during  the  next  century 
and  a  half,  but  the  Magellanic  clouds  were  visible 
to  the  naked  eye  and  formed  a  striking  spectacle 
in  the  southern  heavens.  The  Dutch,  who  saw  them 
in  their  voyages  to  India  round  South  Africa,  called 
them  the  Clouds  of  the  Cape.  Astronomers  were 


140         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

slowly  feeling  their  way  to  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the 
"white  clouds"  they  were  discovering  among  the 
stars.  La  Caille,  when  working  at  a  catalogue  of 
about  ten  thousand  stars  in  South  Africa,  set  down  the 
places  of  forty-two,  which  he  saw  in  the  telescope. 
He  divided  them  into  three  classes ;  fourteen  in  which 
there  was  no  appearance  of  stars ;  fourteen  which  were 
clearly  composed  of  small  stars ;  and  fourteen  which 
combined  the  characters  of  both  these  classes,  small 
stars  surrounded  or  attended  by  white  spots.  His 
labours  were  published  in  1755.  Herschel  followed  at 
the  end  of  the  century,  vastly  extended  our  know- 
ledge of  these  singular  objects,  and  completed  the 
classification  which  the  Frenchman  began. 

Turning  his  attention  to  the  broad  band  of  light 
known  as  the  Milky  Way,  of  which  the  various 
nebulae  "  seemed  to  be  portions,  spread  out  in  different 
parts  of  the  heavens,"  Herschel  at  once  solved  the 
puzzle  that  then  divided  the  astronomical  world,  Is 
it  the  diffused  light  of  innumerable  stars,  or  a  shining 
gas  ?  He  describes  it  as  beyond  doubt  "  a  most 
extensive  stratum  of  stars  of  various  sizes " ;  and 
"  that  our  sun  is  actually  one  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
belonging  to  it  is  as  evident."  These  were  two  steps 
forward,  but  he  did  not  stop  with  them.  He  examined 
that  shining  zone  in  all  directions  with  a  powerful 
telescope  —  a  20  -  feet  reflector  —  piercing  to  the 
borders  of  its  length,  breadth,  and  thickness.  He 
even  undertook  to  count  the  number  of  stars  he 
saw.  He  called  this  census  of  stars  gauging  the 
heavens.  Four  years  afterwards,  he  called  it  analys- 
ing them,  and  spoke  of  his  method  as  "  perhaps  the 
only  one  by  which  we  can  arrive  at  a  knowledge 


GAUGING  THE  HEAVENS  141 

of  their  construction."  He  admits,  however,  that,  in 
course  of  time,  "many  things  must  have  been  sug- 
gested by  the  great  variety  in  the  order,  the  size, 
and  the  compression  of  the  stars  as  they  presented 
themselves  to  his  view."  As  the  number  of  stars  he 
counted  increased,  the  brightness  of  the  Milky  Way 
increased;  as  the  number  diminished,  its  apparent 
brightness  to  the  naked  eye  diminished  also.  The  law 
of  gravitation  he  felt  certain  existed  among  that  vast 
multitude  of  suns  and  systems,  just  as  it  exists  in 
pulling  a  stone  to  the  ground.  At  first  this  was 
mere  suspicion.  More  than  twenty  years  elapsed 
before  he  could  say  it  was  an  established  fact. 

He  continued  his  review  of  the  heavens,  or  his 
gauging  of  the  stars.  The  results  were  so  marvellous 
that  all  the  world  —  men  of  science,  the  common 
people,  even  children  at  school — wondered.  Some- 
times he  saw,  in  a  small  celestial  space,  as  many 
as  250,  or  340,  or  424,  or  588  stars;  at  other  times 
he  counted  only  3  or  4,  5  or  6.  The  star-wealth 
of  some  of  these  regions  was  so  vast  that  in  one 
only  5°  in  breadth — a  very  small  part  of  the  whole 
vault  of  the  heavens  —  there  were  about  330,000 
shining  suns  or  stars !  The  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Halle,  who  visited  Herschel  shortly 
before  his  death,  evidently  got  from  the  astronomer 
himself  that  he  had  "  often  known  more  than  50,000 
pass  before  his  sight  within  an  hour,"  and  he  records 
his  own  wonder,  and  the  wonder  of  men  generally, 
while  these  discoveries  were  still  fresh  in  their  minds, 
that  "after  the  invention  of  his  instruments,  I.  H. 
Schroeter,  the  celebrated  astronomer  of  Lilienthal, 
might  well  compute  the  fixed  stars  in  the  southern 


142         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

and  northern  hemispheres  at  more  than  twelve 
millions  in  number." 

The  average  of  many  hundreds  of  these  gauges 
gave  him  what  he  called  "  the  contents  of  the  heavens." 
Where  the  stars  were  exceedingly  crowded,  "  no  more 
than  half  a  field  was  counted,  and  even  sometimes 
only  a  quadrant " ;  but  the  result  of  these  vast  labours 
was  that  the  Milky  Way  could  not  be  described  as 
other  than  "a  very  extensive,  branching,  compound 
congeries  of  many  millions  of  stars;  which,  most 
probably,  owes  its  origin  to  many  remarkably  large 
as  well  as  pretty  closely  scattered  small  stars,  that 
may  have  drawn  together  the  rest."  Imagination 
stands  appalled  at  the  thought  of  millions  of  shining 
stars,  each  of  the  same  kindred  as  our  sun,  and  each,  it 
may  be  supposed,  with  a  train  of  habitable  worlds  like 
his  planets,  all  circling  round  their  central  orb.  The 
littleness  of  man,  the  smallness  of  human  life,  the 
meanness  of  its  petty  details,  that  usually  fill  the 
whole  horizon  of  human  thought,  are  dwarfed  into 
nothingness  in  presence  of  these  stupendous  realities, 
till  even  they  become  insignificant  before  the  nobler 
and  more  inspiring  conception  of  the  grandeur  of 
the  soul,  which  measures  and  weighs  these  innumer- 
able suns,  which  takes  them  up  in  the  hollow  of  its 
hand,  which  deals  with  them  as  playthings  for  its 
leisure  moments,  and  which  says  to  every  one  of 
them,  I  am  greater  and  of  more  worth  than  thou, 
yes,  greater  than  all  your  millions  put  together. 
"  There  is  no  speech  nor  language  where  their  voice 
is  not  heard." 

By  these  star  gauges  Herschel  did  a  service  to  the 
world,  for  which  humanity  can  never  be  sufficiently 


THE  MILKY  WAY  143 

thankful.  The  plan  as  well  as  the  labour  of  thus 
estimating  "the  contents  of  the  heavens,"  and  lifting 
man's  mind  to  a  higher  level  than  it  ever  attained 
before,  were  altogether  his  own,  unless  we  add  that 
his  devoted  sister  Caroline  shared  the  labour  and, 
it  must  be  added,  the  dangers  of  the  work.  What 
a  vista  of  eternity  and  infinitude  was  unfolded  by 
the  musician  of  Bath  !  It  seemed  as  if  he  had  built  a 
bridge  for  thought  to  span  the  gulf  which  separates  the 
finite  from  the  infinite,  the  temporal  from  the  eternal, 
in  this  incredible  profusion  of  suns  and  systems,  of 
inconceivable  spaces  and  times. 

Of  the  length,  breadth,  and  thickness  of  these  strata 
of  millions  of  stars  that  form  the  Milky  Way,  we  have 
but  the  faintest  conception.  Still,  Herschel  made  an 
estimate,  which  shows  the  immensity  of  space  covered 
by  this  island  of  stars  in  the  ocean  of  infinitude,  if  we 
may  still  presume  to  speak  of  it  in  these  terms.  "  In 
the  sides  of  the  stratum  opposite  to  our  situation  in 
it,  where  the  gauges  often  run  below  5,  our  nebula  " — 
the  white  cloud  called  the  Milky  Way — "  cannot  ex- 
tend to  100  times  the  distance  of  Sirius."  But  we 
know  now,  what  Herschel  did  not  know,  that  light, 
which  darts  from  the  sun  to  our  earth  in  eight  minutes, 
takes  about  ten  years  at  the  same  rate  to  travel 
the  distance  between  Sirius  and  us.  One  hundred  times 
that  distance  would  be  traversed  by  light  in  1000 
years.  And,  if  the  farthest-off  stars  of  the  Milky  Way 
are  nearly  five  hundred  times  as  far  away  from  our 
earth  as  Sirius,  the  swift  messenger  who  brings  us 
tidings  of  them  would  be  five  thousand  years  on  his 
journey,  and  could  only  tell  us  what  was  then  taking 
place,  not  what  may  be  happening  now,  Herschel 


144         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

believed  that  his  telescope  sounded  space  to  this  and 
far  greater  depths  without  finding  traces  of  nebulosity 
— gas  or  star  dust — in  the  regions  it  reached.1  He  said 
also  that  his  telescope  sounded  the  depths  of  past 
time  not  less  than  of  space.  Be  his  ideas  reality  or 
romance,  they  give  us  a  sublime  conception  of  the 
greatness  and  worth  of  the  human  mind  buried  in  its 
pigmy  house  of  clay,  and  chafing  against  the  chains 
that  bind  it  to  earth  and  time. 

Sublime  though  Herschel's  conceptions  were,  he  did 
not  conceal  from  himself  or  others  that  "a  certain 
degree  of  doubt  may  be  left  about  the  arrangement 
and  scattering  of  the  stars  "  in  the  Milky  Way.  They 
were  founded  on  the  supposition  of  "  numberless  stars 
of  various  sizes,  scattered  over  an  indefinite  portion  of 
space  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  almost  equally  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  whole."  This  was  a  large 
supposition  to  make ;  it  is  not  correct,  and  it  was  a 
corner-stone  that  might  be  knocked  away  at  any 
moment.  The  barriers  he  required  to  overleap  were 
the  distance  and  the  relative  sizes  of  the  stars.  These 
barriers  remained  insurmountable  during  his  lifetime. 
It  was  next  assumed,  for  it  could  not  be  said  to  be 
proved,  that  "there  is  but  little  room  to  expect  a 
connection  between  our  nebula" — the  Milky  Way — 
"  and  any  of  the  neighbouring  ones ;  .  .  .  for  if  our 
nebula  is  not  absolutely  a  detached  one,  I  am  firmly 
persuaded  that  an  instrument  may  be  made  large 
enough  to  discover  the  places  where  the  stars  continue 
onwards.  A  very  bright,  milky  nebulosity  must  there 
undoubtedly  come  on."  At  that  time  Herschel  imag- 
ined space  to  be  a  vast  ocean  of  light-bearing  ether, 
1  Phil.  Trans.,  pp.  249,  247  (100  times),  497  times. 


TIME  FOR  GAUGING  THE   HEAVENS     145 

studded  with  continents  and  islands  of  stars,  which  he 
called  nebulae,  clusters,  or  groups.  The  Milky  Way, 
with  its  many  millions  of  shining  suns,  is  one  of  these 
thickly  peopled  islands,  separated  from  many  others  as 
rich  or  perhaps  richer  of  worlds,  in  this  infinite  ocean. 
Of  these  nebulae  or  clusters,  or  star  islands,  he  had, 
up  to  that  time,  counted  "more  than  900,  many  of 
which,  in  all  probability,  are  equally  extensive  with 
that  which  we  inhabit ;  and  yet  they  are  all  separated 
from  each  other  by  very  considerable  intervals.  Some 
there  are  that  seem  to  be  double  and  treble;  and 
though  with  most  of  these  it  may  be  that  they  are 
at  a  very  great  distance  from  each  other,  yet  we  allow 
that  some  such  conjunctions  really  are  to  be  found. 
But  then  these  compound  or  double  nebulas  still  make  a 
detached  link  in  the  great  chain."  He  fell  from  some 
of  these  views  at  a  later  period,  wholly  or  in  part. 

Herschel  delighted  in  these  attractive  speculations. 
In  a  paper  on  the  power  of  telescopes  to  penetrate 
space,  one  of  the  conclusions  he  came  to  was  that, 
while  his  20-feet  reflector  "  might  possibly  have 
reached  to  some  distance  beyond  the  apparent  bounds 
of  the  Milky  Way,"  his  40- feet  would  reach  stars 
from  which  light  would  take  about  two  millions  of 
years  to  reach  our  earth.  A  ray  of  light  revealing  to 
us  the  history  of  stars  as  it  was  two  millions  of  years 
ago!  If  such  things  are  dreams  or  miscalculations, 
they  soar  into  the  sublimest  regions  of  mortal  thought. 
More  amenable  to  arithmetic  is  his  calculation,  that  it 
will  require  not  less  than  598  years,  of  100  working 
hours  each,  to  take  a  census  of  the  stars  by  looking 
with  his  40-feet  "only  one  single  moment  into  each 
part  of  space,  and,  even  then,  so  much  of  the  southern 

10 


146         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

hemisphere  will  remain  unexplored  as  will  take  up 
213  years  more  to  examine."  In  these  numbers  Her- 
schel  was  perhaps  mistaken.  Struve  at  Pulkowa  found 
80  nights  suitable  out  of  120  clear  nights;  but  Sir 
John  Herschel's  experience  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope 
gave  him  the  whole  or  parts  of  131  nights  in  1836, 
and  at  least  100  in  the  following  year.  The  estimate 
of  598  years,  or  rather  811,  by  Sir  William  Herschel 
may  be  set  down  as  excessive. 

Herschel   does  not  appear  to  have  been  altogether 
satisfied    with    the    position   he    had   taken    up.      It 
was  not  warranted   by   pure    and   inductive   science. 
The  foundation  on  which  alone  he  could  build  with 
confidence  had  not  been  laid,  the  distance  of  fixed  stars 
and  nebulae.     "  To  these  arguments,"  he  says,  "  which 
rest  on  the  firm  basis  of  a  series  of  observation,  we  may 
add  the  following  considerations  drawn  from  analogy." 
Science  demands   something   more   trustworthy   than 
arguments  and  analogy.     Mathematical  science  is  not 
content  with  probability :  it  demands  demonstration,  and 
this  he  could  not  give.     He  had  a  distinct  idea  of  an 
ocean,  we  shall  say,  of  ether,  transmitting  light.     In  that 
ocean  are  thousands  of  floating  islands,  each  composed 
of  myriads  or  millions  of  shining  worlds,  all  communi- 
cating  with    each    other    by   far-piercing    sunbeams. 
What  the  telegraphic  messages  thus  sent  from  sun  to 
sun,  from  island  to  island,  may  be,  Herschel  had  no 
means  at  first  of  knowing.     He  came  to  understand 
and  even  read  some  of  these  messages  in  later  years. 
We  are  able  to  read  more  of  them  now,  for  they  tell 
the  sizes  of  suns,  their  rates  of  motion,  their  direction 
of  motion,  and  other  pieces  of  star  history  incredibly 
interesting  to  curious  man.     Herschel  did  not  imagine 


RELATIVE  ANTIQUITY  OF  NEBULA    147 

that  this  ocean  of  ether  is  in  any  degree  impervious 
to  light.  His  friend  Dr.  Olbers,  of  Bremen,  suggested 
that  it  might  be.  Precisely  as  the  glass  or  the  horn, 
through  which  rays  of  light  pass,  keeps  part  of  them 
back  or  absorbs  them,  the  infinite  ocean  of  ether  may 
have  a  similar  effect,  though  in  a  vastly  less  degree. 
This  apprehension  remains  a  mere  speculation  to  this 
day.  Sometimes  these  islands  of  stars  were  broken 
into  clusters  of  stars  showing  magnificent  colours, 
and  forming  the  most  splendid  objects  that  can  be 
seen  in  the  heavens.  They  seemed  to  concentrate 
round  a  centre.  The  Milky  Way  is  one  of  these  islands, 
of  which  the  population  consists  in  suns  and  worlds. 
Others,  separated  from  it  and  from  each  other,  and 
even  apparently  changing  their  shape  from  age  to  age, 
are  "  generally  seen  upon  a  very  clear  and  pure  ground 
without  any  star  near  them  that  might  be  supposed  to 
belong  to  them."  With  all  this  sublimity  of  exposition 
and  explanation,  Herschel  at  the  same  time  asks  for  con- 
sideration from  critics  and  readers,  "for,  this  subject 
being  so  new,  I  look  upon  what  is  here  given  partly  as 
only  an  example  to  illustrate  the  spirit  of  the  method." 
The  idea  Herschel  formed  and  then  figured  of  the 
shape  of  the  Milky  Way  may  be  best  understood 
by  comparing  it  to  the  palm  of  the  hand  with  only 
two  fingers — the  middle  and  the  forefinger — and  these 
stretched  fully  out.  Our  sun  he  supposed  to  be  near 
the  roots  of  the  fingers,  looking  out  into  open  space 
through  the  interval  between  them.  He  had  the  idea 
also  that  our  star-island  "  has  fewer  marks  of  antiquity 
upon  it  than  the  rest."  He  believed  that  its  stars 
"  are  now  drawing  towards  various  secondary  centres, 
and  will  in  time  separate  into  different  clusters  so  as 


148         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

to  occasion  many  subdivisions."  In  fact,  he  "  ascribes 
a  certain  air  of  youth  and  vigour  to  many  very  re- 
gularly scattered  regions  in  our  sidereal  stratum."  He 
imagined  also  that  "  some  parts  of  our  system  seem  to 
have  sustained  greater  ravages  of  time  than  others," 
so  much  so  that  "  in  the  body  of  the  Scorpion  is  an 
opening  or  hole  "  of  at  least  four  degrees  broad,  through 
which,  as  through  a  window,  infinite  space  can  be  sur- 
veyed outside,  till  telescopes  of  greater  power  pierce  the 
darkness,  and,  it  may  be,  reveal  to  our  eye  Milky 
Ways  in  the  far  Beyond.  One  of  them,  near  the  con- 
stellation called  the  Southern  Cross,  had  long  been 
familiar  to  sailors  in  southern  seas  as  the  Coal  Sack 
of  the  Milky  Way,  a  pear-shaped  oval  almost  destitute 
of  stars,  with  which  the  regions  around  are  crowded 
and  brilliant.  "The  purity  and  clearness  of  the 
heavens  are  remarkable,"  he  says,  "when  we  look 
out  of  our  stratum  at  the  sides  towards  Leo  and 
Virgo  on  the  one  hand,  and  Cetus  on  the  other; 
whereas  the  ground  of  the  heavens  becomes  troubled 
as  we  approach  towards  the  length  or  height  of  it." 
These  troubled  appearances  seemed  to  arise  "from 
distant,  straggling  stars  that  yield  hardly  light  enough," 
till,  after  a  long  examination  of  these  troubled  spots, 
the  eye  gets  accustomed  to  the  dimness,  and  the  stars 
that  caused  the  troubling  come  into  view. 

When  Sir  John  Herschel  went  to  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  in  1833,  to  survey  the  southern  heavens  as  his 
father  had  surveyed  the  northern  half  a  century  before, 
his  aunt  Caroline  wrote  to  him,  "It  is  not  clusters  of 
stars  I  want  you  to  discover  in  the  body  of  the  Scorpion 
(or  thereabout),  for  that  does  not  answer  my  expect- 
ation, remembering  having  once  heard  your  father, 


"A   HOLE  IN  THE  HEAVENS"        149 

after  a  long  awful  silence,  exclaim, '  Hier  ist  wahrhaf tig 
ein  Loch  in  Himmel ! ' l  and,  as  I  said  before,  stopping 
afterwards  at  the  same  spot,  but  leaving  it  unsatisfied." 
The  nephew  attended  to  her  wishes,  rummaged  Scorpio 
with  the  telescope,  and  found  many  blank  spaces 
"without  the  smallest  star.  .  .  .  Then  come  on  the 
globular  clusters,  then  more  blank  fields,  then  suddenly 
the  Milky  Way  comes  on  in  large  milky  nebulous 
irregular  patches  and  banks." 

Other  Milky  Ways  than  the  star-island,  to  which 
we  belong,  "  which  cannot  well  be  less  but  are  prob- 
ably much  larger,"  Herschel  at  one  time  believed  he 
saw  in  the  white  clouds,  which  float  in  the  depths 
of  space,  unseen  by  the  naked  eye.  Sometimes  his 
telescope  resolved  them  into  brilliant  star-dust,  scat- 
tered like  shining  jewels  on  the  dark  background  of 
the  heavens :  and  sometimes  not.  That  they  are  at  im- 
mense, at  inconceivable  distances  from  the  solar  system 
and  from  each  other,  is  evident.  How  far,  it  would 
be  rash  to  say.  But  Herschel's  enthusiasm  over- 
leaped all  boundaries  of  prudent  reticence.  Some  of 
them  may  be  "  600  times  the  distance  of  Sirius  from 
us";  other  clusters  "cannot  well  be  supposed  to  be 
at  less  than  six  or  eight  thousand  times  that  distance." 
Light,  the  swiftest  messenger  we  know,  light,  which 
can  journey  round  the  earth  eight  times  in  a  second, 
would  take  six  thousand  years  to  bring  us  a  message 
from  the  nearest  of  these  clusters,  or  more  than  eighty 
thousand  years  from  the  more  remote.  If  his  views 
prove  correct,  a  messenger  of  wing  so  swift,  and  of  foot 
so  tireless,  may  well  be  regarded  as  an  angel  of  the 
Almighty. 

"  Here  indeed  is  a  hole  in  the  He$yens  !  " 


ISO         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Speculations  so  attractive  by  a  watcher  with  an  eye 
so  keen  to  detect  chinks  in  the  armour,  that  concealed 
nature's  most  secret  workings,  could  not  fail  to  be 
affected  by  new  facts,  as  they  forced  themselves  on  his 
observation.  He  found  in  course  of  years  that  "  the 
hypothesis  of  an  equality  and  an  equal  distribution  of 
stars  is  too  far  from  being  strictly  true  to  be  laid  down 
as  an  unerring  guide  in  this  research.  .  .  .  This  con- 
sideration is  fully  sufficient  to  shew  that,  how  much 
truth  soever  there  may  be  in  the  hypothesis  of  an 
equal  distribution  and  equality  of  stars,  when  con- 
sidered in  a  general  view,  it  can  be  of  no  service  in  a 
case  where  great  accuracy  is  required."  Fifteen  years 
later  he  wrote :  "  When  we  examine  the  Milky  Way,  or 
the  closely  compressed  clusters  of  stars,  this  supposed 
equality  of  scattering  must  be  given  up."  It  is  clear 
that,  until  the  distance  and  mutual  relations  of  the 
fixed  stars  were  ascertained,  mere  speculations  on  their 
size  and  brilliance  were  out  of  place.  He  found  also 
that  Cassini's  classification  of  nebulae  was  at  least 
incomplete  or  defective.  He  was  leaning  to  the  belief 
that  some  of  the  nebulae  are  masses  of  shining  gas, 
while  there  may  be  vast  masses  or  regions  of  it  still 
dark ;  but  these  and  other  matters  must  be  referred  to 
another  chapter.  It  is  enough  in  the  meanwhile  to 
say  that  twenty-five  years  of  further  research  wrought 
a  change  on  the  views  he  once  expressed.  But  they 
also  brought  into  distincter  prominence  the  changeful 
character  of  even  the  starry  heavens.  They  had 
wrought  no  change  on  the  awe  with  which  his  con- 
temporaries, however  trifling  they  might  be,  regarded 
"  the  profusion  of  worlds  on  worlds  "  revealed  to  their 
view.  The  immense  multiplication  of  life  on  our 


"ONE'S   IMAGINATION  CRACKS"      151 

little  earth  is  on  the  same  scale  and  partakes  of  the 
same  procedure  as  this  profusion  in  creating  worlds. 
Unity  of  design  to  the  remotest  bounds  of  nature  is  a 
conclusion  that  plainly  results  from  Herschel's  dis- 
coveries. 

The  worst  objection  taken  to  the  writings  of  this 
midnight  watcher  was  the  strange  English  he  some- 
times used.  "Stupendous  as  Mr.  Herschel's  investi- 
gations are,"  Horace  Walpole  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  and 
admirable  as  are  his  talents,  his  expression  of  'OUT 
retired  comer  of  the  universe'  seems  a  little  improper. 
When  a  little  emmet,  standing  on  its  anthill,  could  get 
a  peep  into  infinity,  how  could  he  think  he  saw  a  retired 
corner  in  it  ?  ...  If  there  are  twenty  millions  of 
worlds,  why  not  as  many,  and  as  many,  and  as  many 
more  ?  Oh,  one's  imagination  cracks  ! " 1  "To  the  in- 
habitants of  the  nebulae  of  the  present  catalogue," 
Herschel  wrote,  "our  sidereal  system  must  appear 
either  as  a  small  nebulous  patch ;  an  extended  streak 
of  milky  light ;  a  large  resolvable  nebula ;  a  very  com- 
pressed cluster  of  minute  stars  hardly  discernible ;  or 
as  an  immense  collection  of  large  scattered  stars  of 
various  sizes."  Well  may  we  repeat  in  sobriety  and 
humility  what  the  poet,  in  contempt  and  fun,  uttered 
about  the  same  time, 

"Oh  wad  some  Power  the  giftie  gie  us 
To  see  oorsels  as  ithers  see  us." 

The  last  two  papers  which  Herschel  wrote  on  The 
Construction  of  the  Heavens  were  given  to  the  world 
about  four  years  before  his  death.  They  show  the  same 
grasp  of  details,  the  same  enthusiasm  in  working  out 

1  Letters,  vi.  461,  258. 


152         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

a  lofty  theme,  the  same  insight  into  general  principles, 
as  illumined  the  first  paper  he  wrote  on  the  subject 
thirty-five  years  before.  Although  his  sun  was  near- 
ing  its  going  down,  there  was  no  loss  of  its  morning 
brilliance.  "Of  all  the  celestial  objects  consisting  of 
stars  not  visible  to  the  eye,"  he  writes,  "the  Milky 
Way  is  the  most  striking.  ...  Its  general  appearance, 
without  applying  a  telescope  to  it,  is  that  of  a  zone 
surrounding  our  situation  in  the  solar  system,  in  the 
shape  of  a  succession  of  differently  condensed  patches 
of  brightness,  intermixed  with  others  of  a  fainter 
tinge."  But  his  latest  observations  led  him  to  believe 
that  the  Milky  Way  is  a  fathomless,  and  comparatively 
thin  stratum  of  stars,  of  which  his  40-feet  reflector 
would  sound  the  depths  "  to  the  2300th  order  of  dis- 
tances and  would  then  fail  us."  He  imagined  also  he 
had  "shown  how,  by  an  equalisation  of  the  light  of 
stars  of  different  brightness,  we  may  ascertain  their 
relative  distances  from  the  observer,  in  the  direction 
of  the  line  in  which  they  are  seen."  Among  these  last 
words  was  his  expressed  conviction  that  the  Milky 
Way  is  the  most  brilliant,  and  beyond  all  comparison 
the  most  extensive  sidereal  system.  He  thus  held  to 
the  end  that  it  was  one  of  many  systems,  of  which  it 
bulked  in  his  eyes  as  a  great  continent  in  an  ocean  of 
ether,  while  the  nebulae  are  outlying  islands.  Within 
the  bounds  of  the  Milky  Way  he  believed  that  all  our 
stars,  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  are  contained.  If  an 
18-inch  globe  represented  all  these  stars,  it  would 
require  a  line  45  feet  long  to  be  added  to  express 
the  distance  of  the  734th  order  of  stars,  and,  while  he 
saw  many  of  the  900th  or  980th  order,  he  was  con- 
vinced that  his  40-feet  telescope  would  penetrate  space 


OCEAN  OF  ETHER:  STAR-DUST      153 

to  the  2300th  order.  We  can  only  say  with  Horace 
Walpole  on  looking  at  these  figures,  One's  imagination 
cracks!  But  definite  distances  had  not  been  deter- 
mined then,  and  are  not  determined  yet. 

Whether  these  be  the  dreams  of  an  enthusiastic 
romancer,  or  the  sober  facts  of  science,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  observations  on  which  they  rest  are 
a  delightful  mixture  of  poetry  and  scientific  truth. 
Thickly  strewn  over  the  pages  of  a  scientific  memoir 
are  such  entries  as  these:  "The  stars  are  so  exceed- 
ingly close  and  small  that  they  cannot  be  counted"; 
"  a  beautiful  cluster  of  stars  " ;  "  stars  are  so  small  that 
I  can  but  just  perceive  some  and  suspect  others " ; 
"  light  without  stars  " ;  "a  brilliant  cluster  " ;  "a  coarse 
cluster  of  large  stars  of  different  sizes " ;  "a  rich  cluster 
of  very  compressed  stars."  The  wealth  of  the  heavens 
passes  both  the  language  and  the  comprehension  of 
man.  Star-dust,  sparkling  with  more  than  diamond 
lustre  on  the  dark  background  of  the  heavens,  has 
become  a  common  figure  of  speech.  Jewels  of  silver, 
jewels  of  gold,  rubies,  diamonds,  and  sapphires  are  seen 
in  admirably  distinct  disorder  in  the  great  mirror  of 
the  telescope.  The  prose  of  the  heavens  surpasses  the 
brightest  poetry  of  earth.1 

Whether  William  Herschel  was  justified  in  holding 
to  the  theory  of  an  ocean  of  ether  with  thousands  of 
dimly  seen  Milky  Ways  floating  about  in  it,  or  whether 
he  modified  his  view  into  a  belief  that  the  starry 
worlds,  seen  from  our  earth,  are  parts  of  a  connected 
whole,  is  of  little  consequence  in  these  days.  Perhaps 
he  was  himself  in  doubt  which  view  to  take.  But  he 
was  nearer  to  realising  infinitude  of  space  and  eternity 

1  Phil.  Trans.,  1818,  pp.  437-50. 


154         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  time — if  the  phrase  be  allowable — than  any  man 
ever  was  before  him.  He  marks  an  era  in  the  progress 
of  human  thought  and  experience,  for  his  words  leave 
on  the  mind  of  a  reader  an  awful  impression  of  un- 
speakable vastness  in  space  and  time,  of  multitudinous 
arrangements  for  working  out  with  singular  ease  and 
success  some  vast  whole,  and  of  undiscovered  purposes 
in  the  designs  of  a  Being  to  whose  nature  ours  is  of 
kin,  though  we  feel  ourselves  to  be  but  nothings,  or 
less  than  nothings,  in  His  presence.  To  ignore  or  deny 
this  impression  is  to  do  an  injustice  to  humanity. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  SUN 

So  carefully  and  persistently  was  the  sun  studied  by 
Herschel  that,  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  it  is  advisable 
to  arrange  his  work  not  in  the  order  of  time,  but 
according  to  the  subject  he  treats  of.  He  began  at 
an  early  period  to  watch  the  sun's  face,  and  to  make 
experiments  with  the  view  of  discovering  its  history, 
past  and  future.  Could  he  but  read  that  history  or 
even  a  chapter  of  it,  he  felt  that  he  would  be  able  to 
read  the  history  of  other  suns  as  well  as  ours,  and 
perhaps  to  lay  a  foundation  for  fellow-labourers  in 
the  same  cause  to  build  a  temple  to  science  on.  He 
succeeded  beyond  his  wishes,  or  at  least  his  hopes. 

The  first  thing  he  endeavoured  to  ascertain  was, 
whether  the  sun  was  stationary  or  nearly  stationary 
in  the  heavens.  Astronomers  had  already  discovered 
that  its  immense  fiery  globe  had  a  day  like  our  earth, 
that  is,  that  it  turned  round  on  its  axis  precisely  as 
the  earth  does.  The  time  it  takes  they  found  to  be 
25d  7h  48m  of  our  reckoning.  This  is  the  length  of  the 
sun's  day.  But  Herschel  asked  if  the  sun  had  not  a 
year  as  well  as  a  day,  a  time — vast,  immeasurable, 
perhaps — in  which  it  revolves  round  a  centre,  hidden 
from  man's  knowledge,  but  not  from  man's  sight,  if  he 
only  knew  where  to  look  for  it.  Herschel  looked  for 

155 


156         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

an  unknown  centre.  He  did  not  find  it,  but  he  be- 
lieved, as  we  have  already  seen,  first,  that  the  sun  was 
moving  among  the  stars,  and  second,  that  it  was 
moving  towards  a  spot  in  the  constellation  Hercules  in 
the  northern  sky. 

As  the  sun  is  the  source  of  light  and  heat,  and  both 
of  them  had  to  be  considered  in  his  observations,  it 
was  natural  that  Herschel  should  turn  his  thoughts  to 
the  solar  spectrum,  as  we  call  what  is  commonly  spoken 
of  as  the  rainbow.  A  glass  prism  produces  the  same 
effect  on  a  beam  of  sunlight  as  a  raindrop  or  a  cloud 
curtain  composed  of  millions  of  them:  it  divides  or 
decomposes  the  white  light  of  one  sun  into  that  of 
seven  suns  of  different  colours,  red,  orange,  yellow, 
green,  blue,  indigo,  violet,  and  it  also  bends  or  refracts 
them  from  the  straight  line  the  sunbeam  would  other- 
wise pursue.  The  red  is  the  least  bent,  the  violet 
most.  By  the  refraction  or  bending  is  meant  what  is 
seen  by  thrusting  one  half  of  a  walking-stick  into 
water,  and  keeping  the  other  half  out  of  it  in  the  air. 
But  it  happened  that  in  shielding  his  eye  from  the 
sun  when  looking  at  its  disc  through  a  telescope, 
Herschel  had  used  glass  of  various  colours  to  dim  the 
glare  and  heat.  This  experience  was  fatal  to  the  use  of 
glass  coloured  red.  "I  began  with  a  red  glass,"  he 
says,  "and,  not  finding  it  to  stop  light  enough,  took 
two  of  them  together.  These  intercepted  full  as  much 
light  as  was  necessary ;  but  I  soon  found  that  the  eye 
could  not  bear  the  irritation,  from  a  sensation  of  heat, 
which,  it  appeared,  these  glasses  did  not  stop.  I  now 
took  two  green  glasses :  but  found  that  they  did  not 
intercept  light  enough.  I  therefore  smoked  one  of 
them:  and  it  appeared  that,  notwithstanding  they 


THE  SUN'S  SPECTRUM  157 

still  transmitted  considerably  more  light  than  the  red 
glasses,  they  remedied  the  former  inconvenience  of  an 
irritation  arising  from  heat.  Repeating  these  trials 
several  times,  I  constantly  found  the  same  result." 
How  to  see  the  sun  distinctly  without  inconvenience 
or  danger  from  the  heat  continued  to  occupy  his 
thoughts  for  years.  "I  viewed  the  sun  through 
water,"  he  wrote  in  1801.  "  It  keeps  the  heat  off  so 
well,  that  we  may  look  for  any  length  of  time,  with- 
out the  least  inconvenience."  "  Ink  diluted  with  water 
gave  an  image  of  the  sun  as  white  as  snow ;  and  I  saw 
objects  very  distinctly,  without  darkening  glasses." 

Herschel  introduced  his  papers  on  the  sun's  light 
and  heat  with  a  wise  remark,  which  proved  him  to  be 
as  good  an  observer  in  the  world  of  mind  as  in  that  of 
matter.  "  It  is  sometimes  of  great  use  in  natural  philo- 
sophy to  doubt  of  things  that  are  commonly  taken 
for  granted ;  especially  as  the  means  of  resolving  any 
doubt,  when  once  it  is  entertained,  are  often  within 
our  reach.  ...  It  will  therefore  not  be  amiss  to  notice 
what  gave  rise  to  a  surmise,  that  the  power  of  heating 
and  illuminating  objects  might  not  be  equally  distri- 
buted among  the  variously  coloured  rays."  The  ex- 
periments, which  he  then  made  on  the  light  and  heat 
given  out  by  each  colour  of  the  spectrum,  were  admir- 
ably imagined  and  beautifully  carried  out.  He  was  really 
engaged  on  a  continuation  of  Newton's  experiments  on 
sunbeams,  but  the  field  of  research  was  new  and  untrod. 
Gradually  the  questions  to  which  he  sought  answers 
began  to  take  shape  more  distinctly  in  his  mind. 
When  a  prism  intercepts  a  beam  of  sunlight,  let  into 
a  darkened  room  through  a  hole  in  the  window  shutter, 
and  the  band  of  coloured  light,  five  times  as  long  as  it 


158         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

is  broad,  falls  on  a  screen  placed  behind  the  prism,  is 
the  whole  band  equally  heated  or  equally  luminous  ?  and 
is  the  whole  sunbeam  found  decomposed  into  the  colours 
seen  ?  Regarding  equality  of  heating  and  illumination 
in  the  various  colours,  Herschel's  experiments  made  it 
plain  that  at  the  red  end  there  are  visible  rays,  which 
are  hotter  than  those  in  any  other  part  of  the  coloured 
band  or  spectrum.  The  heat  he  found  diminishing  as 
the  ref  rangibility  increases  from  the  red  to  the  violet  end. 
The  power  of  illuminating  an  object,  on  the  contrary, 
increases  from  the  red  to  the  orange,  from  the  orange 
to  the  yellow,  and  reaches  its  greatest  intensity  be- 
tween the  yellow  and  the  green,  after  which  it  rapidly 
decreases  in  the  blue,  more  so  in  the  indigo,  till  it 
becomes  "very  deficient  in  the  violet."  One  of  his 
experiments,  by  the  help  of  a  microscope,  was  with  a 
guinea: — "Red  showed  four  remarkable  points:  very 
distinct.  Orange,  better  illuminated:  very  distinct. 
Yellow,  still  better  illuminated:  very  distinct:  the 
points  all  over  the  field  of  view  are  coloured;  some 
green;  some  red;  some  yellow;  and  some  white,  en- 
circled with  black  about  them.  Between  yellow  and 
green  is  the  maximum  of  illumination :  extremely  dis- 
tinct. Green,  as  well  illuminated  as  the  yellow :  very 
distinct.  Blue,  much  inferior  in  illumination:  very  dis- 
tinct. Indigo,  badly  illuminated :  distinct.  Violet,  very 
badly  illuminated :  I  can  hardly  see  the  object  at  all." 
His  second  inquiry  was,  Is  a  sunbeam  passing 
through  a  prism  and  received  on  a  screen  behind  it 
represented  entirely  by  the  coloured  and  visible  band 
of  the  spectrum  ?  His  answer  to  this  question  was  a 
distinct  no,  and  a  hinted  suspicion  that  the  no  extended 
or  might  extend  farther  than  it  was  in  his  power  to 


"HITTER'S   DARK  RAYS"  159 

prove.     He  could  and  did  show  that  a  thermometer 
rose  in  passing  from  the  violet  to  the  red  end  of  the 
spectrum :   but   he   did   more.      He   placed   the   ther- 
mometer beyond  the  visible  red,  and  found  that,  as  it 
continued  to  rise,  heat-rays,  invisible  to  the  eye  and 
less  bent  from  the  straight  path  of  the  sunbeam,  gave 
the  greatest  heat.     He  must   have   asked  himself,  Is 
there  not  something  similar  at  the  violet  end ;  but  he 
had  not  the  means  of  answering  the  question.     He  did 
what  was  next  best.     He  asked  a  question  pregnant 
with  great  results,  and  destined  to  bear  an  abundant 
harvest  for  the  welfare  and  instruction  of  man.     "  It 
may  be  pardonable  if  I  digress  for  a  moment,  and 
remark,  that  the  foregoing  researches  ought  to  lead  us 
on  to  others.     May  not  the  chemical  properties  of  the 
prismatic  colours  be  as  different  as  those  which  relate 
to  light  and  heat :  .  .  .  they  may  reside  only  in  one  of 
the  colours."     To  this  question  he  could  neither  give 
nor  get  an  answer.     A   short   time   passed,   and   the 
answer  came  from  Germany  and,  independently,  from 
England.     "  The  existence  of  solar  rays  accompanying 
light,   more    refrangible    than    the    violet  rays,   and 
cognisable     by     their     chemical     effects,     was     first 
ascertained  by  Mr.  Ritter."     They  were  called  "The 
dark  rays  of  Ritter,"  and  "  appeared  to  extend  beyond 
the  violet  rays  of  the  prismatic  spectrum,  through  a 
space  nearly  equal  to  that  which  is  occupied  by  the 
violet."     "Paper  dipped   in  a   solution   of  nitrate   of 
silver"  was    used  to    prove   the   existence    of    these 
chemical   rays   and  to  introduce  the  days  of  photo- 
graphy.     It  was  most   fitting  that  it  should  be  so. 
An  astronomer  led  the  way  in  this  new  quest  after 
invisible  rays ;  chemistry  supplemented  his  discoveries 


160         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

by  paving  the  way  for  photography,  and  paid  back  its 
debt  to  astronomy  by  shortening  the  processes  of  its 
art,  and  faithfully  recording  the  face  of  the  heavens, 
as  the  most  skilful  draughtsman  could  not  do.  Truly, 
Herschel  was  a  seer,  whose  imagination  captured 
truth,  though  men  less  gifted  mocked  him  as  a  dreamer. 
The  equerry  in  Windsor  Castle  was  justified  in  assur- 
ing Miss  Burney  that  time  would  do  justice  to  Herschel, 
as  it  had  done  to  Newton. 

Herschel's  mistakes,  in  his  subsequent  inquiries,  arose 
largely  from  his  belief  in  Newton's  theory  that  light- 
giving  bodies,  like  the  sun,  emit  infinitely  small 
particles,  which  enter  the  eye  and  affect  the  retina  so 
as  to  produce  vision.  Hence  he  spoke  of  the  momenta 
of  these  particles.  His  contemporary,  Dr.  Thomas 
Young,  maintained  that  light,  like  air,  was  produced 
by  waves  propagated  at  a  vast  rate  of  speed,  and  in 
immensely  short  lengths,  through  a  universally  diffused 
and  infinitely  rare  medium,  called  ether. l  A  French- 
man, Fresnel,  has  got  most  of  the  credit  of  establishing 
this  theory.  But  the  third  question  asked  and 
answered  by  Herschel  in  these  papers  about  the 
sun  was,  Is  light  the  same  or  different  from  heat? 
His  experiments  were  carefully  arranged  and  as 
carefully  made,  and  the  conclusion  reached  was  that 
they  are  different.  He  also  wrote  two  long  papers  on 
the  coloured  rings  produced  when  two  watch-glasses, 
or  one  and  a  plane  glass,  are  pressed  together  so  as  to 
leave  a  thin  plate  of  air  between  them.  Amid  un- 

1Dr.  Young,  "The  Bakerian  Lecture,  Phil.  Trans,  for  1802,  pp. 
14,  15,  "A  luniniferous  ether  pervades  the  universe,  rare  and  elastic  in 
a  high  degree."  He  was  well  abused  by  an  Edinburgh  Reviewer  for 
this  Lecture. 


SUN  SPOTS  161 

undoubtedly  excellent  observations  he  was  too  hasty  in 
what  he  then  wrote,  and  too  rash  in  the  conclusions 
he  then  drew.  But  let  it  be  recorded  to  his  honour 
that  to  him  belongs  the  credit  of  first  sending  the 
beams  of  Sirius  and  other  sunny  stars  through  a  prism, 
for  the  purpose  of  determining  whether  their  light  is 
like  our  sun's  or  not.  It  was  a  most  brilliant  idea, 
carried  out  before  the  world  was  ready  to  receive  it. 

The  great  question  Herschel  set  himself  to  solve 
regarding  the  sun  was,  What  is  it  ?  He  knew,  as  all 
men  had  known,  that  it  was  a  vast  fiery  ball  ruling 
earth  and  sky ;  but  he  saw,  as  they  saw,  nothing  save 
the  outside  of  the  ball.  Was  it  a  mighty  furnace 
within  as  it  was  without  ?  In  Newton's  days,  two  or 
three  generations  earlier,  there  were  people  who 
"  supposed  the  sun  to  be  cold,"  although  Newton  easily 
showed  that,  to  "a  body  hard  by  the  sun,  his  heat 
would  be  50,000  times  greater  than  we  feel  it  in  a  hot 
summer  day,  which  is  vastly  greater  than  any  heat  we 
know  on  earth."  1  Herschel  was  aware  that  the  spots, 
the  black  spots  on  its  face,  were  vast  dark  holes  in  its 
white  brightness,  so  large  that  they  would  let  the 
earth  dive  in,  and  be  at  a  thousand  miles'  distance 
all  round  from  the  burning,  blazing  clouds.  But  while 
he  knew  this,  he  had  also  learned  from  the  writings  of 
others  that  these  black  rifts  were  careering  over  its  face 
from  west  to  east  at  the  rate  of  more  than  a  mile 
every  second.  What  did  it  all  mean,  was  the  question 
he  wished  answered.  Fabricius  in  1611,  and  Galileo 
about  the  same  time,  divide  between  them  the  honour 
of  discovering  these  spots  on  the  sun's  face.  The 
former  tells  the  story  of  his  first  sight  of  a  spot,  of  his 

1  Brewster,  Life,  ii.  455. 
II 


1 62         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

own  and  his  father's  keenness  in  viewing  it  till  the 
heat  affected  their  eyes,  of  his  extreme  impatience  till 
morning  again  revealed  to  him  in  the  sun  itself  what 
he  thought  was  only  a  cloud,  and  of  the  incredible 
delight  with  which  he  welcomed  the  strange  stain  on 
the  sun's  brightness,  but  removed  a  little  from  the 
place  where  it  was  seen  the  day  before — he  tells  a  true 
story  with  the  pen  of  a  romancer  inventing  a  world  of 
wonders.  The  darkened  room,  the  hole  in  the  shutter, 
the  sheet  of  white  paper  to  receive  the  bright  image, 
and  the  sun's  rotation  on  his  axis  then  burst  upon  the 
world  in  his  pages. 

Some  imagined  that  these  vast  fields  of  darkness 
were  smoke  from  gigantic  volcanoes  on  the  sun ; 
others  considered  them  to  be  a  mighty  expanse  of 
scum  floating  on  a  burning  ocean,  or  dark  clouds 
swimming  in  highly  heated  gas.  But  Herschel's  tele- 
scope told  him  they  were  immense  pits  dug  somehow 
in  the  shining  and  fiery  brightness,  while  waves  of 
fiercer  brightness  surged  round  the  edges  in  crests  of 
vast  height,  for  which  the  name  faculce,  or  torches,  had 
been  long  before  invented.  Over  many  million  of 
square  miles  of  the  sun's  surface  this  rising  of 
fiercely  heated  waves  and  this  digging  out  of  black 
hollows  were  continually  going  on  in  a  greater  or 
lesser  degree.  As  many  as  forty  of  the  latter  were 
once  seen  by  Herschel,  when  he  was  watching 
Mercury,  so  to  speak,  picking  his  way  amongst 
them  during  his  passage  across  the  sun's  disc. 
Other  observers  laid  claim  to  counting  no  fewer  than 
fifty  at  one  and  the  same  time.  What  were  they  ? 
In  July  1643  Hevelius  saw  a  procession  of  spots  and 
bright  crests  more  than  a  third  of  the  sun's  surface  in 


HERSCHEL'S  THEORY  OF  THE  SPOTS    163 

length,  or  nearly  twice  as  far  as  the  distance  of  the 
moon  from  the  earth !  Then  spots  were  seen  of  such  a 
depth  that  when  they  reached  the  sun's  edge  they 
made  a  notch  on  the  rim.  It  was  evident  they  were 
not  volcanoes  spouting  forth  solid  matter  to  immense 
heights  and  blackening  with  solar  smoke  the  photo- 
sphere, as  Schroeter  called  the  envelope  of  light  which 
clothed  the  sun.  They  were  not  dark  bodies  like 
planets  circling  round  this  fiery  ball.  Nor  were  they 
masses  of  black  scum  floating  on  an  ocean  of  bright- 
ness. In  1779  Herschel  saw  a  great  spot  which 
appeared  to  be  divided  into  two  parts.  One  of  them 
was  more  than  thirty-one  thousand  miles  in  length, 
the  other  was  about  twenty  thousand,  and  a  ridge  of 
shining  light  separated  the  one  from  the  other.  Four 
years  later  he  observed  another,  "  a  fine  large  spot," 
and  followed  it  to  the  edge  of  the  sun.  He  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  was  looking  into  a  vast  pit, 
with  "  very  broad,  shelving  sides,"  on  to  "  the  real  solid 
body  of  the  sun  itself."  Eight  years  after,  in  1791,  he 
came  to  the  same  conclusion  regarding  another  large 
spot:  it  was  a  pit  below  the  level  of  the  bright 
surface ;  round  the  dark  part  it  had  a  broad  margin 
less  bright  than  the  surface,  and  also  lower  down. 
Accompanying  the  spots  were  the  faculce,  as  Hevelius 
called  "  the  ridges  of  elevation  above  the  rough  surface  " 
of  the  sun.  "  About  all  the  spots  the  shining  matter 
seemed  to  have  been  disturbed ;  and  was  uneven, 
lumpy,  and  zigzagged  in  an  irregular  manner." 
These  waves  or  ridges  of  brightness  are  of  immense 
extent,  but  Herschel  objected  to  call  them  torches,  as 
"they  appeared  like  the  shrivelled  elevations  on  a 
dried  apple,  extended  in  length,  and  most  of  them 


1 64          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

joined  together,  making  waves,  or  waving  lines."  In 
1801  he  had  advanced  to  the  "strong  suspicion  that 
one  half  of  our  sun  is  less  favourable  to  a  copious 
emission  of  rays  than  the  other ;  and  that  its  variable 
lustre  may  possibly  appear  to  other  solar  systems,  as 
irregular  periodical  stars  are  seen  by  us."  In  the  same 
paper  he  records  in  his  observations  that  he  counted  at 
one  time  45  "  openings  "  or  spots,  on  the  following  day 
50,  and  three  days  later  above  60.  A  cloud,  hanging 
over  one  of  these  openings,  was  seen  to  move  a  third  of 
the  way  across  the  mighty  chasm  in  fifty-eight  minutes. 
Herschel's  theory  of  the  sun  then  may  be  thus 
stated.  There  is  first  the  region  of  "luminous  solar 
clouds  "  which,  adding  also  the  elevation  of  the  faculce, 
cannot  be  less  than  1843,  nor  much  more  than  2765 
miles  in  depth.  These  solar  clouds  he  compares  in 
density  with  the  aurora  borealis  of  our  skies.  Under- 
neath this  envelope  of  brightness  is  the  sun's  atmo- 
sphere, which  may  be  so  clouded  as  to  shield  the  body 
of  the  sun  and  the  beings,  who  live  there,  from  the 
intense  heat  and  glare  above.  The  body  of  the  sun 
lies  still  lower,  and  "  is  diversified  with  mountains  and 
valleys."  Some  may  deem  it  the  horrid  abode  of  lost 
souls  ;  others  may  see  in  its  cool  retreats  the  home  of 
blessed  spirits.  But  so  imbued  is  man's  mind  with  the 
idea  of  unbearable  heat  in  the  sun  that,  in  a  court  of 
law,  belief  in  its  coolness  was  at  that  time  quoted  as  a 
proof  of  insanity,  and  of  incompetence  in  a  man  to 
manage  his  own  affairs.1  This,  in  short  compass,  is 
Herschel's  view  of  the  constitution  of  the  sun.  It  is 
largely  founded  on  the  theory  of  his  friend  Wilson, 
the  Professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  University  of 

1  Scots  Magazine,  1807,  p.  329. 


HERSCHEL  SAW  NO  TOTAL  ECLIPSE   165 

Glasgow.  So  far  as  spots  are  concerned,  it  works  out 
to  an  attractive  and  popular  resemblance  to  truth. 
Suppose  a  disturbance — call  it  hurricane  or  tornado — 
to  take  place  in  the  solar  atmosphere.  Everything  is 
on  a  gigantic  scale,  mountains,  winds,  waves  in  this 
ocean  of  light.  A  mighty  updraft  from  below  rolls 
back,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time,  the  luminous  solar 
clouds.  Into  the  vast  pit  thus  laid  open  these  clouds 
pour  a  flood  of  light  on  the  body  and  cloudy  atmo- 
sphere of  the  sun.  The  former  looks  black  against  the 
light,  but  reveals  mountains  upwards  of  three  hundred 
miles  in  height;  the  latter,  with  its  shelving  sides, 
returns  more  of  the  light,  and  is  less  black ;  while  the 
shining  matter,  rolled  back  into  waves  of  enormous 
length  and  height,  is  heaped  up  in  fiery  storms  round 
the  vast  gulf.  The  dark  body  of  the  sun  is  called  the 
macula,  or  spot ;  the  better  lighted  atmospheric  shield, 
the  penumbra ;  and  the  heaped-up  waves  the  faculce, 
which  give  the  sun's  surface  the  roughness  of  aspect  it 
presents.1 

This  was  all  that  Herschel  saw  or  imagined.  It  was 
far  within  the  truth  for  awe-inspiring  beauty,  and  for 
the  gigantic  movements  of  these  "luminous  solar 
clouds."  Had  he  seen  the  "  blood-red  streak "  of  the 
total  eclipse  of  1706,  or  the  "corona"  and  "the  ruddy 
clouds"  of  that  of  1715,  the  science  of  astronomy 
would  have  been  perhaps  half  a  century  in  advance  of 
the  position  he  left  it  in  at  his  death.  He  did  not  see 

1  Had  Herschel  known  and  reflected  on  the  letter  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton 
printed  in  his  Life,  ii.  455,  he  would  probably  not  have  published  this 
theory.  "The  whole  body  of  the  sun,  therefore,  must  be  red-hot"  is 
Newton's  conclusion.  Even  then  it  would  look  black  against  the  sur- 
face luminous  clouds. 


1 66         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

either  blood-red  streak  or  corona.  There  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  he  even  read  of  them.  His  pigmy  moun- 
tains of  three  or  four  hundred  miles  were  molehills  to 
the  vast  tongues  of  red  flame  shot  up  from  the  burning 
ocean  of  the  sun's  surface  to  a  height  of  200,000  miles 
in  a  few  minutes,  rising  from  and  falling  back  into  that 
ocean's  bosom  in  a  couple  of  hours.  Herschel  would 
have  revelled  in  these  gigantic  strides  of  living  flame. 
He  would  have  cast  away  his  theory  of  solid  body, 
atmosphere  and  luminous  solar  clouds.  Probably  he 
would  have  held  fast  to  his  comparison  of  the  light- 
clouds  to  our  northern  lights,  and  to  his  idea  that  the 
comets  help  to  maintain  the  light  and  heat  of  our  sun. 
How  his  glory  is  kept  up  from  age  to  age,  from  mil- 
lennium to  millennium,  we  know  as  little  as  he  did. 
Truly  we  are  only  at  the  beginning  of  our  knowledge 
of  this  and  other  glorious  stars;  Herschel  may  have 
thought,  and  probably  did  think,  that  we  were  nearly 
at  the  end. 


CHAPTER  X 

PLANETS  AND  COMETS 

THE  first  of  the  heavenly  bodies  to  which  Herschel 
really  turned  his  eyes  with  the  longing  of  a  traveller 
in  an  untrodden  land  of  romance,  appears  to  have  been 
the  planet  Saturn.  He  was  then  forging  the  instru- 
ments which  were  destined  to  disclose  the  hidden 
things  of  creation,  and  to  give  an  impulse  to  the  study 
of  them,  that  has  gone  on  from  wonder  to  wonder  till 
the  present  day.  He  was  keeping  a  journal,  making 
entries  of  what  he  saw,  and  laying  a  foundation  for 
future  progress.  But  his  method  of  writing  was  some- 
what peculiar.  His  papers  were  to  a  large  extent 
copies  of  entries  made  in  his  journal,  or  the  impressions 
he  received  at  the  moment  while  sun  or  star  or  planet 
was  under  his  eye.  There  was  thus  room  for  mistakes, 
which  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  fell  into ;  the  wonder 
is  that  he  fell  into  so  few.  Of  mistakes  resulting  from 
this  hasty  method  of  working  he  was  himself  conscious; 
but  it  led  to  another  inconvenience.  He  did  not  delay 
publishing  his  views  till  he  was  perfectly  sure  of  their 
accuracy.  The  result  was  diffuseness  of  statement 
and  unnecessary  returning  to  the  same  subject.  To 
give  his  views  in  the  order  of  time  would  thus  be 
wearisome  and  useless.  We  shall  keep  to  the  order  of 
subjects,  bringing  them,  as  far  as  possible,  to  a  focus. 

167 


1 68         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  planet  Mercury  did  not  receive  much  attention 
from  Herschel;  but,   slight  though  his   interest  in  it 
seems  to  have  been,  he  could  not  make  it  a  field  of 
observation   without   shedding   light   on  things   then 
unknown,  and  afterwards  forgotten.     As  a  transit  or 
passage  of  the  planet  over  the  sun's  face  was  due  at 
Windsor  in  the  early  morning  of  November  9,  1802, 
and  Herschel's  "apparatus1  for  viewing  the  sun  was 
then  in  the  highest  perfection,"  he  was  on  the  watch 
for   what    might    happen.      The   weather    proved    as 
favourable  as  he  could  wish,  and  more  than  forty  dark 
spots  were  counted  on  the  sun's  disc.     A  little  black 
pea  traversing  the  disc  among  dark  spots  of  vastly 
greater  size,  it  might  have  been  feared,  would  be  lost  to 
view  or  only  seen  now  and  again.     On  the  contrary, 
the  black  dot  was  easily  seen  during  the  four  hours 
that  remained  of  its  passage  across.     As  the  sun  rose 
higher,  "  the  corrugations  of  the  luminous  solar  surface 
up  to  the  very  edge  of  the  planet "  were  visible  with  a 
10-feet  reflector.     "When  the  planet  was  sufficiently 
advanced  towards  the  largest  opening,"  or  spot,  "  of  the 
northern  zone,  he  compared  the  intensity  of  the  black- 
ness  of    the   two    objects ;    and    found   the   disk   of 
Mercury  considerably  darker,  and  of  a  more  uniform 
black  tint,  than  the  area  of  the  large  opening."     As 
it   approached   the    edge    of    the   sun,  the   whole   of 
its  disc  was  "as  sharply  defined   as  possible;   there 
was    not   the    least    appearance   of   any   atmospheric 
ring,   or    different   tinge  of   light,   visible    about    the 
planet."     As  the  black  dot  vanished   on   leaving   the 
bright  body  of  the  sun,   there   was   not  the  slightest 
distortion  of  the  sun's  limb  or  in  its  own  figure.     The 

1  The  mirror  of  the  reflector  used  on  this  occasion  was  made  of  glass. 


HERSCHEL  AND  SCHROETER        169 

planet  was  snuffed  out  at  once  on  leaving  the  sun's 
body.  Things  were  somewhat  different  with  the 
planet  Venus. 

Venus  had  for  many  years  been  the  object  of  close 
research  by  Schroeter,  a  most  painstaking  observer  of 
Lilienthal,  then  a  well-known  observatory  in  the  duchy 
of  Bremen.  Her  appearance  had  also  been  carefully 
studied  by  Herschel  for  nearly  twenty  years.  The 
former  made  out  that  he  had  measured  on  her  surface 
lofty  mountains  six  times  higher  than  Chimborazo,  or 
about  twenty-three  miles  in  height.  The  latter  could 
see  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  poked  some  grave  scientific 
fun  at  his  friend,  who  complained,  in  a  learned  paper, 
that  he  could  not  "reconcile  it  to  the  friendly  senti- 
ments which  the  author  has  always  hitherto  expressed 
towards  me,  and  which  I  hold  extremely  precious ; 
though  perhaps  to  others  it  may  not  have  the  same 
appearance."  Boscovich's  epigram  on  the  planets  had 
come  true  in  the  case  of  these  astronomers — 

"'Twixt  Mars  and  Venus  as  this  globe  was  hurled, 
'Tis  plain  that  love  and  war  must  rule  the  world." 

Schroeter  attacks  Herschel  for  misrepresenting,  or,  on 
insufficient  grounds,  rejecting  his  views.  Herschel 
appears  not  to  have  retorted  any  more  than  he  did 
when  attacked  elsewhere  by  others.  It  was  wise; 
but  he  found  that  the  Lady  Venus  may  be  as  much 
a  source  of  quarrel,  when  she  walks  in  unsurpassed 
brightness  among  the  stars,  as  when  she  awakens  the 
feelings  of  mortal  hearts  on  earth. 

As  this  was  the  only  scientific  quarrel  in  Herschel's 
life,  it  is  worth  while  to  show  how  small  it  was.  Far 
different  were  the  quarrels  which  caused  annoyance 


1 70         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  grief  to  the  friends  of  Newton,  Hooke,  Flamsteed, 
Leibnitz,  Bernoulli,  Laplace,  and  which  render  their 
lives  sometimes  most  unpleasant  reading.  A  quarrel 
for  the  maintenance  of  truth  and  right  is  a  necessity 
of  life  in  a  world,  where  falsehood  and  wrong  seem 
often  to  have  the  best  of  it ;  but  the  meannesses  and 
selfishness  of  scientific  quarrels  have  little  or  nothing 
of  this  nobility  about  them.  "The  result  of  my 
observations  would  have  been  communicated  long 
ago,"  Herschel  wrote  for  the  Royal  Society,  "  if  I  had 
not  still  flattered  myself  with  the  hopes  of  some  better 
success,  concerning  the  diurnal  motion  of  Venus; 
which,  on  acccount  of  the  density  of  the  atmosphere 
of  this  planet,  has  still  eluded  my  constant  attention 
as  far  as  concerns  its  period  and  direction.  Even  at 
the  present  time  I  should  hesitate  to  give  the  following 
extract  from  my  journals,  if  it  did  not  seem  incumbent 
on  me  to  examine  by  what  accident  I  came  to  overlook 
mountains  in  this  planet,  which  are  said  to  be  of  such 
enormous  height,  as  to  exceed  four,  five,  and  even  six 
times  the  perpendicular  elevation  of  Cimbora9a,  the 
highest  of  our  mountains.  The  same  paper  which 
contains  the  lines  I  have  quoted,  gives  us  likewise 
many  extraordinary  accounts,  equally  wonderful :  such 
as  hints  of  the  various  and  singular  properties  of  the 
atmosphere  of  Saturn."  Then  he  proceeds  to  speak  of 
Schroeter's  measures  as  "  defective  " ;  the  mirror  of  the 
7-f eet  reflector  used  as  "  considerably  tarnished  " ;  and 
the  "calculations  (as)  so  full  of  inaccuracies,  that  it  would 
be  necessary  to  go  over  them  again."  The  Lilienthal 
observer  did  not  like  this  plain  speaking. 

To    these    somewhat  sharp,   but  perhaps  deserved 
criticisms,  Schroeter  replied  in  1795.     "  Though  it  is  a 


SCIENTIFIC  QUARRELS  171 

satisfaction  to  me  that  Dr.  Herschel  last  year  found 
my  discovery  of  the  morning  and  evening  twilight  of 
Venus's  atmosphere  to  be  confirmed,  as  I  could  not 
hope  to  have  obtained  such  an  important  confirmation 
so  early,  considering  the  excellent  telescopes  required, 
and  that  a  favourable  opportunity  for  such  observations 
occurs  but  seldom  :  yet  the  paper  on  the  planet  Venus, 
which  this  great  observer  has  inserted  in  the  Phil. 
Trans,  for  1793,  contains  unreserved  assertions,  which 
may  be  easily  injurious  to  the  truth,  for  the  very 
reason  that  they  have  truth  for  their  object,  and  yet 
rest  on  no  sufficient  foundation."  And  Schroeter  then 
endeavours  to  show  that  Herschel's  paper  contains 
misrepresentations  or  unsatisfactory  proof  of  mistakes 
committed  by  him. 

It  was  a  small  quarrel  at  the  worst,  in  which  these 
two  friends  engaged,  a  very  different  quarrel  from  the 
disputes  and  angry  encounters  that  disgraced  Leibnitz, 
and  Bernoulli,  and  Flamsteed,  and  did  not  leave 
Newton  altogether  unscathed.  Schroeter  had  perhaps 
the  best  of  it.  His  mountains,  twenty  or  twenty-three 
miles  high  on  the  surface  of  Venus,  may  be  a  myth, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  his  measure  of  the  length  of 
her  day,  23h  21m,  is  somewhat  grudgingly  accepted  by 
Herschel,  while  his  estimate  of  the  size  of  Venus,  as 
rather  less  than  the  earth,  is  preferred  to  Herschel's, 
who  believed  he  had  proved  Venus  to  be  a  little  larger 
than  the  earth.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  admitted 
that  Herschel  had  sometimes  cause  to  complain. 
Writing  of  one  astronomer  in  1799,  he  says,  "the  same 
author's  account  of  my  double  stars  is  extremely 
erroneous." 

As  early  as  1777,  while  toiling  at  the  daily  work  of 


i;2          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

a  musician  in  Bath,  Herschel  "  found  that  the  poles  of 
Mars  were  distinguished  with  remarkable  luminous 
spots."  He  believed  that,  by  observing  them  carefully; 
he  might  secure  a  key  to  a  knowledge  of  the  planet, 
and  its  history,  the  length  of  its  day,  its  atmosphere, 
its  seasons.  These  observations  were  continued  during 
six  or  seven  years.  Sometimes  he  saw  a  well-marked 
lucid  spot  on  Mars :  "  it  is  its  south  pole,  for  it  remains 
in  the  same  place,  while  the  dark  equatorial  spots 
perform  their  constant  gyrations :  it  is  nearly  circular." 
It  was  not  only  circular;  "it  was  very  brilliant  and 
white."  At  other  times  he  saw  also  another  "lucid 
spot"  at  the  planet's  north  pole.  Occasionally  both 
spots  were  seen,  but  the  one  was  "  thicker,"  or  "  much 
thicker,"  than  the  other,  while  the  thinner  was,  or 
seemed  to  be,  longer.  After  six  years  of  watching  he 
writes,  "The  white  polar  spot  increases  in  size;  it  is 
very  luminous."  The  conclusions  he  drew  from  these 
notes  in  his  journal,  and  from  his  calculations  to 
ascertain  the  seasons  on  Mars,  must  have  been  listened 
to  by  those  who  first  heard  them  read  as  if  they  were 
a  page  or  two  from  a  romance  by  Fielding  or  Smollett. 
We  give  them  in  Herschel's  own  words. 

"  The  analogy  between  Mars  and  the  earth  is,  perhaps, 
by  far  the  greatest  in  the  whole  solar  system.  ...  If 
then  we  find  that  the  globe  we  inhabit  has  its  polar 
regions  frozen  and  covered  with  mountains  of  ice  and 
snow,  that  only  partly  melt  when  alternately  exposed 
to  the  sun,  I  may  well  be  permitted  to  surmise  that 
the  same  causes  may  probably  have  the  same  effect  on 
the  globe  of  Mars;  that  the  bright  polar  spots  are 
owing  to  the  vivid  reflection  of  light  from  frozen 
regions :  and  that  the  reduction  of  those  spots  is  to  be 


POLAR  SPOTS  ON   MARS  173 

ascribed  to  their  being  exposed  to  the  sun.  In  the 
year  1781  the  south  polar  spot  was  extremely  large, 
which  we  might  well  expect,  since  that  pole  had  but 
lately  been  involved  in  a  whole  twelvemonth's  dark- 
ness and  absence  of  the  sun;  but  in  1783  I  found  it 
considerably  smaller  than  before,  and  it  decreased 
continually  from  the  20th  of  May  till  about  the 
middle  of  September,  when  it  seemed  to  be  at  a 
stand.  During  this  last  period  the  south  pole  had 
already  been  above  eight  months  enjoying  the  benefit 
of  summer,  and  still  continued  to  receive  the  sunbeams ; 
though,  towards  the  latter  end,  in  such  an  oblique 
direction  as  to  be  but  little  benefited  by  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  the  year  1781,  the  north  polar  spot, 
which  had  then  been  its  twelvemonth  in  the  sunshine, 
and  was  but  lately  returning  to  darkness,  appeared 
small,  though  undoubtedly  increasing  in  size."  The 
length  of  the  year  in  Mars  is  nearly  two  of  our  years, 
and  the  distance  from  us  varies  from  about  230  to  50 
millions  of  miles. 

Astronomers,  previous  to  Herschel's  time,  had  found 
that  Mars  was  surrounded  by  an  atmosphere  like  the 
earth.  One  of  them,  Cassini,  seems  to  have  suspected 
the  existence  of  an  atmosphere  of  great  density,  and 
rising  to  a  height  of  about  70,000  miles  above  the 
planet's  surface.1  Herschel  used  the  same  means  as 
Cassini  to  determine  the  height  of  the  atmosphere  of 
Mars  by  watching  the  fading  or  going  out  of  starlight, 
when  a  star  came  up  to  its  limb.  At  a  distance  of 
30,000  miles  there  was  no  indication  of  an  atmosphere. 
"  It  appears,  however,  that  the  planet  is  not  without  a 

1  Thirty-six  semi-diameters  of  the  planet.  The  atmosphere  of  the 
earth  is  now  supposed  to  be  about  500  miles  in  height. 


174         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

considerable  atmosphere.  For  besides  the  permanent 
spots  on  its  surface,  I  have  often  noticed,"  he  says, 
"occasional  changes  of  partial  bright  belts  and  also 
once  a  darkish  one  in  a  pretty  high  latitude.  And 
these  alterations  we  can  hardly  ascribe  to  any  other 
cause  than  the  variable  disposition  of  clouds  and 
vapours  floating  in  the  atmosphere  of  that  planet." 
From  the  fact  that  the  dark  belts  or  spots  and  the 
red  colour  of  Mars  manifestly  belong  to  the  surface  of 
the  planet,  we  may  accept  Herschel's  idea  "that  its 
inhabitants  probably  enjoy  a  situation  in  many  respects 
similar  to  ours."  It  has  been  shown  in  our  own  day 
that  the  vapour  of  water,  and  with  that  we  may 
associate  clouds,  is  present  in  the  atmosphere  of  Mars. 
But  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  atmosphere  of 
Mars  is  comparatively  rare. 

Jupiter  was  not  one  of  the  planets  from  which 
Herschel  reaped  an  ungathered  harvest.  The  field 
had  been  so  thoroughly  worked  by  others  in  searching 
for  a  method  of  easily  discovering  the  longitude  at 
sea,  that  it  does  not  seem  to  have  presented  the  same 
attractions  to  him  as  other  planets  did.  A  paper 
which  he  wrote  on  Jupiter  in  1797 — and  he  wrote  no 
other — gives  many  curious  quotations  from  his  journal 
regarding  the  planet  and  its  satellites.  So  minute  are 
the  discoveries  made  of  change  of  colour  and  apparent 
size  of  the  satellites  that  if  the  Red  spot,  detected  on 
the  planet  in  1878,  had  been  visible  in  his  day,  he 
could  scarcely  have  failed  to  see  it.  The  bands  or 
belts  on  the  body  of  the  planet,  the  white  and  dark 
spots  they  showed,  the  length  of  day  they  indicated, 
and  the  rotation  of  the  four  satellites  round  their 
primary  were  the  principal  points  attended  to  by 


JUPITER,  SATURN  175 

him.  The  results  he  arrived  at  were  very  near  the 
reality. 

Time  of  rotation  of  Jupiter  on  his  axis l — 

Herschel. 

H.  M.    s. 

9  55  49 
Time  of  revolution  in  its  orbit  of — 

D.     H.     M.  D.    H.    M.    S. 

First  satellite  .     •..        .  1  18  26'6  1  18  27  34 

Second  satellite  .       \        .  31817'9  3131342 

Third  satellite  ....  7     3  59 '6  7     34233 

Fourth  satellite  .        .         .  16  18     5'1  16  16  32  11 

If  the  white  spots  on  the  belts  were  connected  with 
drifting  masses  in  Jupiter's  atmosphere,  they  would 
drift  as  well  as  rotate.  Herschel  was  aware  of  this, 
and,  since  his  day,  the  amount  of  drift  has  been 
estimated  at  270  miles  an  hour  in  the  same  direction 
as  the  rotation.  In  other  words,  they  would  take 
42  days  to  go  round  the  planet  from  this  cause 
alone.  Herschel  was  also  persuaded  that  the  four 
satellites  revolve  on  their  axes  in  the  same  period  as 
they  revolve  round  Jupiter,  resembling  in  this  respect 
our  moon.  Laplace  was  disposed  to  accept  this 
conclusion.2 

For  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  the  planet 
Saturn  had  been  the  object  and,  it  may  be  said,  the 
despair  of  every  astronomer's  curiosity,  mainly  in 
consequence  of  the  ring  which  the  telescope  had 
shown  it  to  possess,  and  the  singular  shapes  the 
ring  was  found  to  assume.  Five  moons  were  also 
discovered  to  be  circling  round  the  planet,  and 

1  The  great  red  spot  gives  9  h.  55  m.  34  s. 

2  System  of  the  World,  Bk.  I.  chs.  viii.  vii. 


1 76          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

Messier,  viewing  the  planet  in  1766  with  what  he  calls 
"an  achromatic  reflector  of  10  feet  7  inches  focus," 
"  perceived  on  his  globe  two  darkish  belts,  extremely 
faint  and  difficult  to  be  discerned,  directed,  however, 
in  a  right  line  parallel  to  the  longest  diameter  of  the 
ring." 1  However,  till  Herschel  applied  his  40  -  feet 
reflector  to  its  system,  discovery  may  be  said  to  have 
reached  its  limits.  To  "  the  liberal  support,  whereby 
our  most  benevolent  King  has  enabled  his  humble 
astronomer  to  complete  the  arduous  undertaking  of 
constructing  this  instrument,"  Herschel  writes,  was 
due  the  discovery  of  other  two  moons  or  satellites,  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  ring,  and,  in 
short,  a  new  era  in  our  knowledge  of  that  wonderful 
system.  An  object  so  engaging  drew  Herschel's 
attention  as  early  as  the  spring  of  1774,  long  before 
he  was  known  to  fame.  On  the  17th  of  March  that 
year,  with  a  5  J-feet  reflector,  he  saw  the  ring  "  reduced 
to  a  very  minute  line,"  and  the  planet  looking  like  a 
ball  with  a  knitting-needle  projecting  through  it  on 
both  sides.  About  a  fortnight  after,  the  ends  of  this 
axis  had  vanished,  and  a  dark  band  or  shadow  crossed 
the  planet's  equator  from  side  to  side.  In  the  follow- 
ing year  he  saw  the  ring  gradually  open  out,  with  a 
"  dark  zone  contained  between  two  concentric  circles," 
as  if  there  were  two  rings  with  an  open  space  between 
them.  For  ten  years  he  continued  watching  the  planet 
with  telescopes  of  various  powers,  suspicious  that  it 
had  not  told  astronomers  all  the  story  of  its  ring  and 
satellites.  The  ten  years'  watch  lengthened  out  to 
twenty,  and  the  twenty  to  thirty  or  more,  but  this 
eager  watcher  still  kept  guard,  ready  to  take  advan- 

1  Phil.  Trans.,  1769.,  vol.  lix.  p.  459. 


SEVENTH  MOON  OF  SATURN    177 

tage  of  the  slightest  lifting  of  the  curtain  which  con- 
cealed a  world  of  wonders  from  view. 

As  soon  as  his  great  mirror  was  finished,  he  turned 
it  on  Saturn,  and  "  the  very  first  moment  he  saw  the 
planet,  on  August  28,  1789,"  he  was  presented  with  a 
view  of  six  of  its  satellites,  "in  such  a  situation  and  so 
bright  as  rendered  it  impossible  to  mistake  them  or 
not  to  see  them."  Five  of  these  satellites  had  been 
known  for  more  than  a  century:  a  sixth  was  thus 
added.  Constantly  continuing  his  watch  on  the  planet, 
he  was  rewarded,  three  weeks  after,  with  discovering 
a  seventh  so  close  to  the  planet  that  the  telescopes, 
previously  in  use,  had  failed  to  find  it.1  Even  in  his 
great  mirror  "  it  appeared  no  bigger  than  a  very  small 
lucid  point,"  and  it  lies  so  near  the  planet  and  its  ring 
that  "  except  in  very  fine  weather,  it  cannot  easily  be 
seen  well  enough  to  take  its  place  with  accuracy." 
But  he  learned  from  experience,  and  taught  others  the 
lesson,  that  it  is  easier  to  find  a  small  body  which  has 
been  once  seen,  and  whose  place  has  been  marked, 
than  to  detect  it  for  the  first  time  amid  a  crowd  of 
other  heavenly  bodies.2  The  heavens  teach  wisdom 
even  in  the  littlest  things,  but  the  lessons  they  teach 
are  sometimes  forgotten  as  soon  as  learned.  He  found 
also  that  the  time  of  a  sidereal  revolution  round  the 
planet  is  22  hours,  37  minutes,  22  seconds.  Both  it 
and  the  other  moon  he  discovered  revolve  so  near  and 
so  parallel  to  the  ring,  that  he  had  "  repeatedly  seen 


1  One  discovered  by  Huyghens  in  1655,  and  four  by  Cassini  in  1671 
and  onwards. 

2  Compare  the  ease  with  which  observers  detected  the  small  companion 
of  Sirius,  and  the  "crape  "  ring  of  Saturn  after  they  were  once  detected 
(Ball,  Story  of  the  Heavens,  p.  387). 

12 


1 78         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

them  run  along  its  very  minute  arms  "  at  the  rate  of 
9  or  10  miles  a  second !  He  was  looking  from 
Windsor  across  a  gulf  in  space  about  nine  hundred 
millions  of  miles  in  width.  It  was  a  romance  of  the 
heavens — one  of  many. 

On  ascertaining  that  his  great  telescope  was  not 
required  for  these  observations  on  the  ring  and  moons 
of  Saturn,  he  "  made  ten  new  object  specula  and 
fourteen  small  plain  ones  for  his  7  -  feet  reflector, 
having  already  found  that  the  maximum  of  distinct- 
ness might  be  much  easier  obtained  than  where  large 
apertures  are  concerned."  During  his  long-continued 
watch  of  Saturn  he  saw  sometimes  a  northern  belt  on 
the  body  of  the  planet,  sometimes  two  belts  at  the 
equator.  In  a  couple  of  days  the  entry  in  his  journal 
became  "  a  bright  belt  over  a  dark  one " ;  and,  nine 
days  later,  "  one  dark  and  one  very  faint  white  belt." 
The  last  entry  he  quotes  in  1790  is,  "The  bright  belt 
close  to  the  ring  and  two  dark  equatorial  belts." 
These  belts  would  be  about  one  hundred  thousand 
miles  in  length:  what  were  they?  Similar  belts  or 
bands  had  long  been  seen  and  studied  on  the  planet 
Jupiter.  It  was  agreed  among  observers  that  they 
were  probably  due  to  cloudy  masses  floating  in 
Jupiter's  atmosphere.  If  the  same  explanation  hold 
for  the  belts  of  Saturn,  the  changes,  seen  on  them 
by  Herschel,  would  be  explained  by  "a  very  con- 
siderable atmosphere,"  in  which  they  take  place.  He 
not  only  adopted  this  conclusion,  but  confirmed  it  by 
another  observation.  When  the  two  nearest  of  the 
moons — the  two  he  discovered  in  1789 — came,  in  their 
progress  round  the  planet,  to  the  edge  of  the  disc, 
they  did  not  disappear  at  once,  but  continued  "to 


SATURN'S  MOONS  AND  BELTS       179 

hang  to  the  disk  a  long  while  before  they  would 
vanish."  The  seventh  or  innermost  (Mimas)  thus 
hung  on  the  disc  for  twenty  minutes,  and  the  sixth 
for  fourteen  or  fifteen.  Had  there  been  no  atmosphere, 
both  of  the  moons  would  have  been  at  once  hid  behind 
the  planet.  This  takes  place  when  a  star  comes  up  to 
our  moon,  and  vanishes  behind  it.  The  star  is  seen  to 
go  out  at  once ;  and  the  conclusion  drawn  is  that  this 
could  not  happen  unless  there  were  no  atmosphere  or 
very  little  of  it  in  the  moon  to  keep  the  star  in  sight 
for  us  after  it  had  really  vanished.  Our  atmosphere 
gives  us  twilight,  morning  and  evening,  and  enables 
us  to  see  the  sun  some  minutes  before  he  rises,  and 
for  as  long  after  he  has  set.  Ultimately  Herschel 
perceived  a  quintuple  belt,  two  dark  and  three  bright, 
on  Saturn.  Sometimes  also  he  noticed  a  whitish  light 
at  the  poles  similar  to  the  polar  spots  on  Mars,  and 
due,  he  believed,  to  the  same  cause.  But  what  these 
belts  really  are  is  a  problem  still  unsolved.  The  vast 
body  of  Saturn  is  lighter  than  the  same  volume  of 
water,  and  would  float  in  it  like  cork.  Our  earth  is 
about  five  times  heavier  than  a  globe  of  water  of  the 
same  size,  and  would  sink  in  water  like  lead.  Whether 
Saturn  is  still  a  heated  mass,  slowly  cooling  down,  and 
these  clouds  arise  from  streams  of  gas  given  off,  remain 
problems  for  the  future  to  solve. 

With  improved  mirrors  and  a  less  powerful  tele- 
scope, he  watched  the  movements  and  changes  of  the 
ring.  Between  1790  and  1806  he  wrote  seven  papers 
for  the  Royal  Society  on  Saturn  and  his  system. 
Slowly  he  came  to  the  conclusion,  which  he  dismissed 
at  first  as  improbable,  that  the  ring  was  not  single,  but 
double,  with  a  gulf  twenty-five  hundred  miles  [1680]  in 


i8o          HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

width  between  the  two  parts.1  The  black  disc  or  belt  was 
not  in  the  middle  of  the  ring's  breadth.  "  It  is  a  zone 
of  considerable  breadth,"  which  was  always  seen  per- 
manently in  the  same  place.  As  it  was  not,  what  some 
seem  to  have  supposed,  the  shadow  of  a  vast  range  of 
mountains  on  the  ring's  surface,  he  resolved  to  wait 
till  the  planet  came  into  a  position  which  would  enable 
him  to  see  the  stars  through  the  black  belt,  if  it  really 
were  a  division  in  the  ring,  a  window,  as  it  were, 
through  which  he  could  look  out  into  space  beyond. 
He  does  not  appear  to  have  been  successful  in  this 
quest,  and  it  has  not  been  done  by  others.  That  there 
were  two  unequal  rings,2  separated  by  this  black  line, 
he  was  satisfied.  They  were  bright  rings,  but  the 
inner  was  the  brighter  of  the  two.  Near  the  outer 
edge  of  the  outer  ring,  he  observed  and  figured  "  a 
black  list,"  fainter  than  the  dividing  gulf.  He  did  not 
consider  it  a  division  in  the  outer  ring,  but  it  is  now 
a  recognised  feature,  traceable  all  round.  Herschel  also 

1  The  dimensions  of  Saturn  and  his  rings  are,  according  to  Proctor 
(Encyc.  Brit.,  "Astronomy,"  p.  783)— 

Diameter  of  the  planet    .  .  .         70,136  miles. 

Between  planet  and  "  crape  "  ring          .  9,760 

Breadth  of "  crape "  ring  .  .  8,660 

,,        of  inner  bright  ring    '  ..  .         17,605 

, ,        of  division  between  bright  rings  1,680 

,,        of  outer  bright  ring       .  .  9,625 

The  diameter  of  the  ring  system  is  thus  about  165,000  miles.  Herschel 
made  it  about  (204,883)  205,000  miles  in  diameter.  He  believed  that 
the  breadth  of  the  ring  is  to  the  space  between  the  ring  and  the  planet 
as  5  to  4  (Phil.  Trans.,  1806,  p.  463).  If  the  "crape"  be  left  out  of 
account  in  measuring  the  ring,  the  proportion  is  about  5  to  3  '2  (Phil. 
Trans,  for  1792).  He  estimates  the  vacant  space  between  the  outer 
and  inner  rings  at  nearly  2513  miles. 

2  In  the  proportion   of  805  to  280,  while  the  space  between  was 
reckoned  115. 


THE  RING  181 

saw  the  edge  of  the  ring  as  a  thin  rim  of  light,  and,  from 
some  spots  seen  on  it,  inferred  that  it  rotated  round  the 
planet  in  10  hours,  32  minutes,  15  seconds.  The  planet 
itself  revolves  in  10  hours,  14  minutes,  23  seconds. 

Highly  interesting  was  the  story  thus  told  by  the 
planet ;  but  Herschel  wrung  from  it  other  details. 
He  suspected  that  an  eighth  satellite  existed,  but  it 
was  reserved  for  others  to  discover  an  eighth,  and,  it  is 
now  said,  a  ninth,  at  great  distances  from  the  planet. 
But  the  rings  continued  to  be  a  puzzle,  which  baffled 
solution.  He  observed  lucid  points,  different  from  the 
satellites,  coming  between  the  ring  and  his  eye,  and 
moving  along  it  in  their  orbits.  If  they  were  not 
satellites,  what  were  they  ?  He  was  not  mistaken  in 
"  the  frequent  appearance  of  protuberant  and  lucid 
points  on  the  arms  of  the  ring  of  Saturn."  They  were 
realities,  not  illusions,  not  an  enchantment  lent  by  the 
vast  distance  at  which  he  saw  them.  "  Many  of  these 
bright  points,"  he  writes,  "  were  completely  accounted 
for  by  the  calculated  places  of  the  satellites " ;  but 
there  were  many  more  which  remained  inexplicable. 
He  could  not  entertain  the  idea  that  these  points 
"  would  denote  immense  mountains  of  elevated  sur- 
face." He  rather  inclined  to  the  belief  that  the  ring 
was  in  a  state  of  rotation  round  the  planet,  and  that 
one  at  least  of  the  shining  spots  might  be  a  moon 
bedded  in  or  somehow  connected  with  the  ring,  float- 
ing, it  might  be,  in  a  fluid  like  water,  or  running  in 
"  a  notch,  groove  or  division  of  the  ring  to  suffer  the 
satellite  to  pass  along."  He  was  perhaps  not  far  from 
the  truth  in  these  romantic  imaginings.  But  the  light 
of  the  ring  is  generally  brighter  than  that  of  the 
planet,  and  he  even  imagined  that  the  shining  spots 


1 82          HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

may  owe  "  their  existence  to  inherent  fires  acting  with 
great  violence."  "  Nay,  we  have  pretty  good  reason  to 
believe,"  he  said,  "  that  probably  all  the  planets  emit 
light  in  some  degree ;  for  the  illumination  which  re- 
mains on  the  moon  in  a  total  eclipse  cannot  be  entirely 
ascribed  to  the  light  which  may  reach  it  by  the  refrac- 
tion of  the  earth's  atmosphere."  This  idea  is  not 
borne  out  by  recent  observations. 

The  first  two  papers  Herschel  wrote  on  Saturn,  con- 
taining the  record  of  more  than  fourteen  years'  work, 
cover  nearly  ninety  pages  quarto.  Fifty  of  these  pages 
are  merely  extracts  from  his  journal,  showing  the 
nightly  work  in  which  he  was  engaged,  jottings,  it 
may  be,  all  of  which  required  from  him  time  and  care, 
before  they  could  be  put  down  on  paper.  Here  is  a 
specimen  of  two  nights'  work,  done  shortly  before 
midnight : — 

"  Nov.  7  :  22,  9.  At  the  end  of  the  p.  arm  is  a  place 
that  is  brighter  than  nearer  to  the  body. 

"  23, 12.  The  preceding  arm  has  still  the  appearance 
of  a  small  protuberant  point  towards  the  south,  near 
the  end  of  the  arm. 

"  Nov.  8 :  23, 40.  There  is  a  protuberant  point  on  the 
preceding  arm  besides  the  7th  sat. ;  so  that  at  present 
I  cannot  tell  whether  the  satellite  be  the  nearest  or 
farthest  of  them." * 

By  patient,  long-continued  labour,  carried  on  at  all 
hours  of  the  day  and  night,  is  a  way  prepared  for 
advancing  the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge,  though 
few  are  capable  of  estimating,  far  less  of  bearing,  the 

1  Phil  Trans.,  1790,  p.  485  (vol.  Ixxx.).  The  seventh  and  sixth, 
though  last  discovered,  are  nearest  to  the  planet.  The  longer-known 
five  used  to  be  named  in  the  order  of  their  distance  from  it. 


SUBDIVISIONS  OF  THE  RING        183 

cost  in  time  and  comfort,  by  the  sacrifice  of  which  it  is 
purchased  for  mankind. 

That  Herschel  was  surprised  by  the  brightness  of 
the  rings,  the  greater  brightness  of  the  shining  points 
he  saw  on  them,  and  the  yellowish  light  of  the  planet, 
is  quite  clear.  Whether  he  ever  suspected  a  light  or 
phosphorescence  of  its  own  in  the  system  of  Saturn,  as 
some  observers  have  now  come  to  think  exists,  is 
another  matter.  But  he  was  on  the  threshold  of  that 
discovery,  if  discovery  it  be.  He  entertained  no  such 
idea  in  1789  when  he  classed  all  the  planets  "  under 
one  general  definition,  of  bodies  not  luminous  in  them- 
selves," though  two  years  of  farther  reflection  and 
observation  may  have  wrought  a  change  in  a  man  of 
his  clear  perception  and  quickness.  On  another  view 
developed  since  his  day  he  almost  anticipated  recent 
research.  He  denied  that  the  ring  was  subdivided  by 
many  dark  lines  into  a  series  of  concentric  rings,  "  as 
has  been  represented  in  divers  treatises  of  astronomy." 
He  firmly  held  to  only  one  division ;  but  he  was  not 
far  from  the  modern  view,  which  represents  the  ring 
as  a  mighty  mass  of  revolving  satellites,  kept  in  posi- 
tion by  the  gravity  of  the  planet  and  the  velocity  of 
their  rotation  round  him. 

Herschel's  memoirs  on  Saturn  cover  about  one 
hundred  and  seventy  pages  quarto,  and  the  plates  that 
accompany  them  give  a  distinct  idea  of  what  he  saw. 
By  comparing  letterpress  and  plate  we  may  better 
understand  the  relation  in  which  he  stood  to  his  fol- 
lowers in  this  field  of  research  and  discovery.  With 
one  of  the  new  specula,  which  he  ground  apparently  for 
the  purpose  of  observing  the  ring  of  Saturn  more  care- 
fully, he  got  views  that  he  speaks  of  as  "  uncommonly 


1 84         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

distinct."  Of  these  views  he  writes  :  "  The  outer  ring 
is  less  bright  than  the  inner  ring.  The  inner  ring  is 
very  bright  close  to  the  dividing  space,  and  at  about 
half  its  breadth  it  begins  to  change  colour,  gradually 
growing  fainter,  and  just  upon  the  inner  edge  it  is 
almost  of  the  colour  of  the  dark  part  of  the  quintuple 
belt." *  A  little  after  he  adds :  "  The  shadow  of  the 
ring  upon  Saturn,  on  each  side,  is  bent  a  little  south- 
wards, so  that  the  apparent  curve  it  makes  departs  a 
little  from  the  ring."  Looking  at  these  singular  com- 
panions of  the  planet  across  a  gulf  eight  or  nine 
hundred  millions  of  miles  wide,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  an  astronomer  prays  for  "light,  more  light,"  to 
resolve  this  puzzle  of  the  bright  and  the  dark.  It  is 
only  an  outline  of  the  ring,  at  the  best,  that  we  can 
expect  to  obtain  from  the  most  careful  drawings.  But 
what  Herschel  did  not  suspect  or  imagine  about  the 
ring,  it  would  be  natural  for  him  to  confound  with 
other  features  that  took  a  greater  hold  of  his  fancy. 
Of  the  inner  ring  he  says  :  "  At  about  half  its  breadth 
it  begins  to  change  colour,"  that  is,  it  passes  from 
"  very  bright "  to  the  darkness  of  the  quintuple  belt. 
Now  this  was  said  of  the  ring  as  seen  and  figured  in 
1794.  Compare  it  with  the  three  rings  in  the  three 
figures  shown  in  1792.  They  are  unlike  that  of  1794. 
Either  the  ring  had  changed,  or  Herschel  was  in  1794 
looking  on  two  inner  rings,  a  bright  or  very  bright 
ring,  and  a  dark.  This  was  Professor  Bond's  discovery 
in  1850,  "  a  crape  ring "  half  the  breadth  of  the  very 
bright  inner  ring,  between  it  and  the  body  of  the 
planet.  There  are  thus  three  well-marked  rings  in 
the  system  of  Saturn,  a  somewhat  dark  outer,  a  very 
1  Phil.  Trans.,  1794,  pp.  54,  57. 


MR.  SIXTH  REDISCOVERED          185 

bright  inner,  and  a  "  crape "  or  slate  -  coloured  ring 
nearer  still  to  the  planet.  Did  Herschel  not  see  and 
figure  all  three,  only  failing  to  observe  the  interval 
between  the  very  bright  and  the  "  crape  "  ring  ?  We 
can  only  express  our  surprise  if  one  so  quick  of  eye, 
and  so  careful  to  observe,  ascribed  to  the  bright  ring 
in  1794,  what  he  did  not  see  or  delineate  on  it  in  1792, 
if  the  "  crape  "  existed  then  as  it  exists  now. 

Fifty  years  after,  Sir  John  Herschel,  when  at  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  made  a  careful  search  for  the  two 
moons  discovered  by  his  illustrious  father.  He  had 
all  but  given  it  up  in  despair  when,  looking  for  the 
other  five  "  with  the  20-feet  reflector,"  which  he  took 
with  him  to  South  Africa,  "  and  a  polished  new  mirror, 
there  stood  Mr.  Sixth  S  .  .  .  Next  night  it  was  kept  in 
view  long  enough  for  Saturn  to  have  left  it  behind  by 
its  own  motion,  had  it  been  a  star.  ...  So  this  is 
at  last  a  thing  made  out,"  he  writes.  "As  for  No. 
Seven,  I  have  no  hope  of  ever  seeing  it." 

Since  Herschel's  time  the  minds  of  men  have  become 
familiar  with  strings  of  meteorites,  millions  of  miles  in 
length,  through  which  our  earth  plunges  in  its  yearly 
journey  round  the  sun.  If  they  form,  or  come  in  time 
to  form,  a  continuous  ring  about  the  sun,  one  hundred 
thousand  miles  in  breadth,  we  may  have  on  a  vastly 
larger  scale  a  parallel  to  the  rings  of  Saturn.  The 
breadth  of  the  latter  is  only  about  one-third  of  the 
breadth  of  one  well-known  stream  of  meteors,  and 
their  length  is  not  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  miles.  If 
then  these  rings  of  the  planet  are  similarly  composed 
of  separate  masses,  great  and  small,  and  are  not  con- 
tinuous rings,  perhaps  250  miles  in  thickness,  a  satellite 
"  floating  in  a  fluid  like  water,  or  running  in  a  notch, 


1 86          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

groove  or  division  of  the  ring,"  while  it  ceases  to  be  a 
fanciful,  becomes  also  an  unnecessary  conception. 

Such  are  the  main  features  of  the  romance  of  Saturn 
since  Herschel  began  his  study  of  it  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  years  ago.  In  the  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  years  that  preceded,  there  had  also  been  mystery 
and  romance  about  the  planet  and  his  ring.  All  the 
riddles  presented  by  this  system  have  not  been  yet 
read,  and  it  is  likely  that,  when  improvements  in  tele- 
scopes or  observation  enable  man  to  read  the  riddles 
that  face  him  to-day,  they  will  raise  new  riddles  and 
give  birth  to  other  romances  for  the  amazement  or 
delight  of  future  ages.  On  one  point  science  is  still  in 
doubt.  Does  the  fifth  satellite  of  Saturn,  like  our 
moon,  always  show  the  same  face  to  the  planet,  or,  in 
other  words,  turn  on  its  axis  in  the  same  time  that  it 
takes  to  revolve  round  him  ?  Herschel  believed  he 
had  proved,  or  almost  proved,  that  it  "  turns  once  on 
its  axis,  exactly  in  the  time  it  performs  one  revolution 
round  its  primary  planet." 

It  was  only  fitting  that  the  discoverer  of  Uranus 
should  pay  special  attention  to  that  planet :  but  five  or 
six  years  elapsed  before  his  patient  watchfulness  was 
crowned  with  any  success.  Unlike  Jupiter  and  Saturn, 
the  light  of  Uranus  is  very  faint.  He  does  not  invite 
pursuit ;  he  flies  from  it  into  darkness :  and  the  light 
of  his  moons  is  fainter  still.  Herschel  suspected,  per- 
haps hoped,  that  if  he  searched  for  satellites  he  would 
find  them.  And  so  he  did.  On  January  11,  1787,  he 
saw  "  some  very  faint  stars  "  near  the  planet,  "  whose 
places  he  noted  down  with  great  care."  Next  evening 
two  of  them  were  missing.  As  the  haziness,  that  was 
about,  might  have  caused  their  disappearance,  he  noted 


TITANIA  AND  OBERON  REDISCOVERED  187 

"  all  the  small  stars  near  the  planet  the  14th,  17th, 
18th,  24th  of  January,  and  the  4th  and  5th  of 
February."  On  the  7th  of  February  he  kept  one 
star  in  view  for  nine  hours,  from  six  in  the  evening 
till  three  next  morning.  His  journal  records  that  he 
saw  it  "  faithfully  attend  its  primary  planet."  On  the 
second  night  after,  he  was  so  satisfied  of  having  caught 
sight  of  a  second  moon,  that  he  delineated  on  paper 
what  he  expected  to  see  the  following  evening.  And 
he  saw  in  the  clear  heavens  what  he  sketched  sixteen 
or  seventeen  hundred  million  of  miles  away,  "  The 
Georgian  Planet,  attended  by  two  satellites."  Oberon 
and  Titania  are  the  fairy  names  by  which  they  are 
now  known.  "  I  confess,"  he  adds,  "  that  this  scene 
appeared  to  me  with  additional  beauty,  as  the  little 
secondary  planets  seemed  to  give  a  dignity  to  the 
primary  one,  which  raises  it  into  a  more  conspicuous 
situation  among  the  great  bodies  of  our  system.  For 
upwards  of  five  hours  I  saw  them  go  on  together, 
each  pursuing  its  own  track."  It  was  the  heroic  age 
of  astronomical  research.  A  hero  there  and  a  hero 
here  were  wrestling  with  difficulties  and  winning 
triumphs  in  the  world  of  stars.  They  were  men  of 
extraordinary  skill  and  unwearied  endurance.  It  was 
nearly  fifty  years  after  their  discovery  before  the  fairies, 
Oberon  and  Titania,  again  condescended  to  show  them- 
selves to  a  mortal,  the  son  of  their  discoverer.1  And 
it  enabled  his  aunt,  then  ninety  years  of  age,  to  write : 
"  These  folks  would  not  have  called  the  Herschelian 
construction  useless,  if  they  had  seen  the  struggle, 
during  the  years  from  1781  to  '86,  to  get  a  sight  of 

1  Holden,  Life  and   Works  of  W.  H.,  p.  143.     But  see  Caroline's 
Memoirs,  pp.  261,  305. 


1 88          HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  satellites  of  the  Georgium  Sidus,  when,  after 
throwing  aside  the  speculum,  they  stood  broad  before 
us." 

From  observations  continued  on  Uranus  for  fifteen 
years,  Herschel  first  suspected,  and  then  became  con- 
vinced that  other  satellites  besides  the  two,  which  he 
discovered  in  1787,  attend  the  planet  on  its  journey 
round  the  sun.  It  was  labour  of  love  not  lost,  or 
grudgingly  given,  but  the  fruits  it  yielded  were  Dead 
Sea  apples  with  a  fair  outside  and  rottenness  within. 
He  believed  he  saw  other  four  moons  circling  round 
Uranus  apparently  in  an  opposite  direction  to  other 
planets,  that  is,  from  east  to  west,  not  from  west  to 
east.  He  also  suspected  that  it  had  a  ring  round  it, 
or  two  rings;  then  he  gave  up  the  idea;  then  he 
entered  in  his  journal,  "  When  the  satellites  are  best  in 
focus,  the  suspicion  of  a  ring  is  the  strongest " ;  and 
nine  months  after  he  adds,  "  The  planet  is  not  round, 
and  I  have  not  much  doubt  but  that  it  has  a  ring." 
He  used  "  successively  powers  rising  from  240  to  2400," 
more  than  two  years  after,  "  without  any  suspicion  of 
a  ring."  A  fortnight  later  he  tried  magnifying  powers 
of  2400  and  4800.  In  conclusion  he  believed  in  the 
four  new  satellites,  but  gave  the  ring  up.  A  traveller 
in  unexplored  regions  of  the  heavens  may  thus  be  as 
much  the  victim  of  a  mirage  as  a  wanderer  in  the 
thirsty  deserts  of  earth.  But  a  singular  thing  was 
observed:  these  moons  of  Uranus  became  invisible 
when  they  approached  the  planet,  which  those  of 
Jupiter  and  Saturn  never  did  till  the  planet  got  be- 
tween them  and  us.  What  was  the  reason  ? 

The  cause  is  in  the  eye  of  the  observer  himself.  It 
requires  to  adapt  itself  to  the  light  which  falls  on  the 


SENSIBILITY  OF  THE  EYE  189 

retina.  Now  "the  planet  is  very  faint;  and  the  in- 
fluence of  its  feeble  light  cannot  extend  far  with  any 
degree  of  equality.  This  enables  us  to  see  the  faintest 
objects,  even  when  they  are  only  a  minute  or  two 
removed  from  it.  The  satellites  are  very  nearly  the 
dimmest  objects  that  can  be  seen  in  the  heavens;  so 
that  they  cannot  bear  any  considerable  diminution  of 
their  light,  by  a  contrast  with  a  more  luminous  object, 
without  becoming  invisible.  If  then  the  sphere  of 
illumination  of  our  new  planet  be  limited  to  18"  or 
20",  we  may  fully  account  for  the  loss  of  the  satellites 
when  they  come  within  its  reach ;  for  they  have  very 
little  light  to  lose,  and  lose  it  pretty  suddenly."  This 
view  of  a  weak  light  extinguishing  a  weaker,  though 
a  commonplace  now,  received  a  very  poetical  inter- 
pretation in  a  paper  written  by  Herschel  three  years 
after.  "  This  increased  sensibility,"  he  says,  "  was  such, 
that  if  a  star  of  the  3rd  magnitude  came  towards  the 
field  of  view,  I  found  it  necessary  to  withdraw  the  eye 
before  its  entrance,  in  order  not  to  injure  the  delicacy 
of  vision  acquired  by  long  continuance  in  the  dark. 
The  transit  of  large  stars,  unless  where  none  of  the 
6th  or  7th  magnitude  could  be  had,  has  generally 
been  declined  in  my  sweeps,  even  with  the  20-feet 
telescope.  And  I  remember,  that  after  a  considerable 
sweep  with  the  40-feet  instrument,  the  appearance  of 
Sirius  announced  itself,  at  a  great  distance,  like  the 
dawn  of  the  morning,  and  came  on  by  degrees,  in- 
creasing in  brightness,  till  this  brilliant  star  at  last 
entered  the  field  of  view  of  the  telescope,  with  all  the 
splendour  of  the  rising  sun,  and  forced  me  to  take  the 
eye  from  that  beautiful  sight."  To  increase  this  sen- 
sibility of  the  eye  he  was  on  these  occasions  in  the 


190          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

habit  of  excluding  light  from  surrounding  objects  by 
wearing  a  black  hood. 

Herschel  was  not  content  with  wresting  from  Uranus 
this  novel  part  of  his  story.  He  continued  to  watch 
the  planet.  Unfortunately,  the  same  success  did  not 
crown  his  efforts  to  read  its  history.  A  great  number 
of  observations  on  imaginary  rings  and  supposed 
moons,  that  were  found  to  be  stars,  or  not  moons  but 
probably  moving,  planetary  bodies  of  the  asteroid 
nature,  demanded  his  attention,  and  deceived  his 
hopes.  It  was  such  a  tantalising  pursuit,  that  even 
"the  direction  of  a  current  of  air  alone  may  affect 
vision."  At  last  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  no 
ring,  similar  to  Saturn's,  girdles  Uranus;  but  that, 
certainly,  four  additional  satellites  accompany  him  on 
his  long  journey  of  eighty-four  years  round  the  sun. 
Astronomers  who  came  after  his  time  failed  to  find 
these  four  moons,  but,  later  still,  two  satellites  have 
been  added  to  the  original  two  discovered  by  Herschel. 
One  of  the  additions  is  suspected  to  belong  to  the  four 
he  believed  he  had  seen  circling  round  the  planet.  Of 
the  four  recognised  satellites  the  most  distant,  Oberon, 
performs  its  round  in  13 '46  days,  or,  as  Herschel 
found,  13  days,  11  hours,  5  minutes,  1  £  seconds.  Other 
information,  which  by  careful  watching  he  wrung 
from  Uranus,  has  been  verified  or  corrected  by  those 
who  came  after  him ;  but  to  this  unwearied  observer 
belongs  the  credit  of  showing  that  the  two  satellites 
he  discovered,  unlike  other  members  of  the  solar 
system,  revolve  in  orbits  nearly  at  right  angles  to 
the  ecliptic,  and  that  their  course  is  retrograde,  or 
from  east  to  west,  not  direct,  that  is,  from  west 
to  east.  These  were  two  singular  and  outstanding 


THE  ASTEROIDS  191 

discoveries    made    by    Herschel    in    the    system    of 
Uranus. 

The  two  small  planets,  Ceres  and  Pallas,  discovered 
in  1801  and  1807,  have  strangely  given  the  tooth  of 
envy  an  opportunity  of  wounding  the  good  name  of 
Herschel.  As  he  found  their  discs  like  those  of  fixed 
stars,  spurious  and  not  measurable;  as  they  "re- 
sembled small  stars  so  much  as  hardly  to  be  distin- 
guished from  them  even  by  very  good  telescopes,"  as 
he  imagined  them  from  the  haziness  he  saw  around 
them  to  be  "  comets  in  disguise,"  he  considered  planet 
a  misnomer  as  applied  to  them,  and  proposed  to  call 
them  asteroids.  Strange  to  say,  the  friend  of  Piazzi 
and  Olbers,  who  discovered  these  small  bodies,  was 
charged  with  intending,  by  the  suggestion  of  this 
diminutive,  to  cast  a  slight  on  the  achievement  of  his 
friends,  in  comparison  with  his  own  glory  as  the  dis- 
coverer of  the  great  planet,  Uranus.  A  more  stupid 
slander  of  a  most  generous  heart  could  scarcely  be 
imagined.  He  predicted  that  the  association  of  astro- 
nomers which  had  been  formed  on  the  Continent  to 
hunt  for  more  of  them  would  be  successful:  "Many 
may  soon  be  discovered,"  he  informed  the  Royal  Society. 
Two  were  caught  within  the  next  five  years,  Juno  and 
Vesta,  but  the  "  many  "  foretold  by  Herschel  in  1802 
remained  an  unfulfilled  prediction  for  more  than  forty 
years.  He  himself  joined  in  the  hunt,  and  failed :  "  I 
have  already  made  five  reviews  of  the  Zodiac  without 
detecting  any  of  these  concealed  objects."  Yet  he  was 
slandered  as  envious  of  the  fame  of  others  who  had 
done  what  he  confessed  he  had  failed  in  doing,1  although 
in  1813  he  told  Thomas  Campbell,  the  poet,  that  "there 

1  Phil  Trans,  for  1802,  pp.  228-30. 


192         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

will  be  thousands — perhaps  thirty  thousand  more — yet 
discovered."  The  discovery  of  the  fourth,  called  Vesta, 
he  pronounced  "  an  event  of  such  consequence "  as  to 
"  engage  his  immediate  attention."  He  called  it  "  a  valu- 
able addition  to  our  increasing  catalogue  of  asteroids  " ; 
and  he  spoke  of  the  "  celebrated  discoverers  "  as  in- 
ducing "  us  to  hope  that  some  farther  light  may  soon 
be  thrown  upon  this  new  and  most  interesting  branch 
of  astronomy."  1  Dr.  Olbers  himself  wrote  to  Herschel 
that  Vesta  "  was  not  to  be  distinguished  from  a  fixed 
star  " ; 2  while  Schroeter,  the  countryman  and  neighbour 
of  Olbers,  had  already  communicated  a  paper  to  the 
Royal  Society  in  which  he  said : 3  "  Its  image  was,  with- 
out the  least  difference,  that  of  a  fixed  star  of  the  6th 
magnitude  with  an  intense  radiating  light;  so  that 
this  new  planet  may  with  the  greatest  propriety  be 
called  an  asteroid."  That  one  scientific  man  should 
attack,  or  rather  slander,  another  for  giving  to  these 
small  bodies  a  scientifically  appropriate  name,  on  the 
ground  that  he  thereby  intended  to  derogate  from  the 
credit  of  his  own  friends,  whom  he  publicly  extolled  as 
"  celebrated  discoverers,"  seems  incredible.  Yet  it  was 
done. 

By  a  most  ingenious  contrivance  he  managed  to 
obtain  approximate  values  for  the  diameters  of  Ceres 
and  Pallas.  The  former  he  found  to  be  161'6  miles ; 
the  latter  smaller,  147  or  110J  miles.  So  small  is 
Pallas  that  it  would  require  many  thousands  equally 
small  to  make  up  a  planet  no  larger  than  Mercury. 
The  colour  of  Ceres  he  found  to  be  "  ruddy,  but  not 
very  deep  " ;  that  of  Pallas,  "  milky  whitish." 

1  Letter  from  Dr.  Olbers,  April  20,  1807. 

2  Phil.  Trans.,  1807,  p.  260.      3  Phil.  Trans.,  May  28,  1807,  p.  245. 


COMETS  193 

In  1807  Herschel  concluded  one  of  his  papers  in 
these  words:  "I  find  that  out  of  the  sixteen  comets 
which  I  have  examined,  fourteen  have  been  without 
any  visible  solid  body  in  their  centre,  and  that  the 
other  two  had  a  very  ill-defined  small  central  light, 
which  might  perhaps  be  called  a  nucleus,  but  did  not 
deserve  the  name  of  a  disk."  In  the  end  of  September 
that  year  a  comet  was  discovered  by  Mr.  Pigott,  to 
which  Herschel  at  once  turned  his  attention  in  the 
hope  of  wresting  from  it  information  regarding  its 
nature.  By  careful  observations,  continued  over  five 
months,  he  felt  himself  warranted  in  claiming  for  it 
"  a  visible,  round  and  well-defined  disk,"  538  miles  in 
diameter,  and  "  shining  in  every  part  of  it  with  equal 
brightness."  He  came  also  to  the  conclusion  "that 
the  body  of  the  comet  on  its  surface  is  self-luminous, 
from  whatever  cause  this  quality  may  be  derived." 
He  inferred  besides  that  "  the  changes  in  the  brightness 
of  the  small  stars,  when  they  are  successively  im merged 
in  the  tail  or  coma  of  the  comet,  or  cleared  from  them, 
prove  evidently,  that  they  are  sufficiently  dense  to 
obstruct  the  free  passage  of  star-light."  The  tail  of 
this  comet,  three  weeks  after  its  discovery,  was  more 
than  nine  millions  of  miles  in  length,  and  Herschel 
was  inclined  to  think  that  it  "consisted  of  radiant 
matter,  such  as,  for  instance,  the  aurora  borealis."  It 
was  not  bifid  or  split  in  two,  as  that  of  the  comet  of  1769 
had  been,  but  it  presented  a  peculiarity  seen  also  in  others 
of  these  bodies :  "  The  south-preceding  side,  in  all  its 
length,  except  towards  the  end,  is  very  well  defined : 
but  the  north-following  side  is  everywhere  hazy  and  irre- 
gular, especially  towards  the  end;  it  is  also  shorter  than 
the  south-preceding  one,  .  .  .  even  to  the  naked  eye," 


194         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

If  Herschel  had  not  known  this  body  to  be  a  comet, 
he  would  have  described  its  head,  as  "a  very  large, 
brilliant,  round  nebula,  suddenly  much  brighter  in  the 
middle."  He  says  that  he  would  have  added,  "The 
centre  of  it  might  consist  of  very  small  stars."  So 
struck  was  he  with  this  singular  idea  that  he  directed 
a  telescope  "with  a  high  power  to  the  comet."  He 
then  saw  "several  small  stars  shining  through  the 
nebulosity  of  the  coma."  The  terror  which  once  sur- 
rounded the  appearance  of  these  bodies  in  the  heavens 
is  gone ;  the  awe  remains,  and,  as  knowledge  increases, 
the  mysteries  that  attend  their  birth,  their  growth, 
their  flight  through  space,  have  become  greater  and 
more  wonderful  problems  awaiting  solution. 


CHAPTEE  XI 

HERSCHEL'S  ENGLISH  HOME 

So  long  as  Herschel's  house  was  conducted  by  his 
sister  Caroline,  it  could  scarcely  be  called  an  English 
home.  To  all  intents  and  purposes  it  was  a  German 
household,  ruled  by  a  German  mistress,  and  conducted 
according  to  German  ways.  When  he  married  the 
widow  of  a  London  merchant,  Mrs.  Pitt,  his  sister,  who 
had  been  for  some  time  kept  unusually  busy  with 
papers  and  calculations,  wrote,  as  she  was  withdrawing 
from  this  household  management,  "It  may  easily  be 
supposed  that  I  must  have  been  fully  employed  (be- 
sides minding  the  heavens)  to  prepare  everything  as 
well  as  I  could  against  the  time  I  was  to  give  up  the 
place  of  a  housekeeper,  which  was  the  eighth  of  May, 
1788."  She  continued  to  mind  the  heavens;  but  she 
had  a  good  deal  also  to  do  with  the  earth. 

Of  the  lady  to  whom  Herschel  was  married,  of  him- 
self, and  of  his  sister  we  have  excellent  word-pictures, 
drawn  by  Miss  Burney  and  her  father.  Caroline,  who 
for  fourteen  years  had  devoted  her  life  to  her  brother's 
studies,  and  who  continued  to  show  the  same  devotion 
for  sixty  more,  though  resigning  the  post  of  house- 
keeper, remained  to  help  him  in  his  pursuits  and  to 
watch  over  his  health.  Reading  the  brief  entries  in 
her  diary,  we  cannot  help  concluding  that  in  many 


196         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

respects  she  was  the  real,  but  not  the  nominal  head  of 
that  centre  of  activity  and  discovery.  When  Dr. 
Burney  called  on  Herschel  in  1798,  ten  years  after 
his  marriage  with  Mrs.  Pitt,  to  consult  him  about  his 
great  poem  on  astronomy  and  astronomers,  he  was 
surprised  to  find  Mrs.  Herschel,  and  not  her  sister-in- 
law  Caroline,  at  the  head  of  the  table,  while  a  merry 
little  son  of  six,  afterwards  Sir  John  Herschel,  amused 
him  and  the  rest  of  the  company.  Dr.  Burney  did  not 
know  that  his  friend  William  Herschel  was  married. 
Even  in  1817,  another  visitor,  Dr.  Niemeyer,  was 
equally  ignorant.  These  are  proofs  of  the  gentle,  re- 
tiring nature  of  the  wife,  to  which  Herschel's  friends 
bear  witness,  and  of  the  overshadowing  celebrity  to 
which  his  sister  had  attained.  From  all  quarters  we 
learn  that  it  was  as  pleasant  a  home  as  it  was  a  famous 
observatory. 

Miss  Burney,  the  famous  authoress  of  Evelina,  who 
accepted  the  post  of  assistant  wardrobe  keeper  to  the 
Queen  in  Windsor  Castle  at  £200  a  year,  when  she 
might  have  earned  ten  times  that  amount  by  her  pen, 
and  retained  her  independence  besides,  may  possibly 
have  had  a  fellow-feeling  with  Herschel,  who  was 
condemned,  as  she  was,  to  bear  heavy  burdens  from 
the  etiquette  of  a  court.  Her  picture  of  him  is  every 
way  delightful ;  his  wife  comes  in  for  a  briefer  notice 
and  for  less  praise.  At  a  tea-party  and  concert  in 
Windsor  she  met  them  both,  five  months  after  their 
marriage.  "  Two  young  ladies  were  to  perform,"  she 
says,  "  in  a  little  concert.  Dr.  Herschel  was  there,  and 
accompanied  them  very  sweetly  on  the  violin;  his 
new-married  wife  was  with  him,  and  his  sister.  His 
wife  seems  good-natured ;  she  was  rich,  too !  and  astro- 


MISS  BURNEY  ON  HERSCHEL        197 

nomers  are  as  able  as  other  men  to  discern  that  gold 
can  glitter  as  well  as  stars."1  There  is  a  falling-off 
here  from  the  enthusiasm  of  former  days:  a  great 
falling-off. 

Two  years  previous  Miss  Burney  described  Herschel, 
or  her  first  impressions  of  him,  in  much  more  glowing 
terms.  "  In  the  evening  Mr.  Herschel  came  to  tea.  I 
had  once  seen  that  very  extraordinary  man  at  Mrs. 
De  Luc's,  but  was  happy  to  see  him  again,  for  he  has 
not  more  fame  to  awaken  curiosity  than  sense  and 
modesty  to  gratify  it.  He  is  perfectly  unassuming, 
yet  openly  happy,  and  happy  in  the  success  of  those 
studies  which  would  render  a  mind  less  excellently 
formed  presumptuous  and  arrogant. 

"  The  King  has  not  a  happier  subject  than  this  man, 
who  owes  it  wholly  to  His  Majesty  that  he  is  not 
wretched  ;  for  such  was  his  eagerness  to  quit  all  other 
pursuits  to  follow  astronomy  solely,  that  he  was  in 
danger  of  ruin,  when  his  talents  and  great  and  un- 
common genius  attracted  the  King's  patronage.  He 
has  now  not  only  his  pension,  which  gives  him  the 
felicity  of  devoting  all  his  time  to  his  darling  study, 
but  he  is  indulged  in  license  from  the  King  to  make  a 
telescope  according  to  his  new  ideas  and  discoveries, 
that  is,  to  have  no  cost  spared  in  its  construction,  and 
is  wholly  to  be  paid  for  by  His  Majesty. 

"  This  seems  to  have  made  him  happier  even  than 
the  pension,  as  it  enables  him  to  put  in  execution  all 
his  wonderful  projects,  from  which  his  expectations  of 
future  discoveries  are  so  sanguine  as  to  make  his 
present  existence  a  state  of  almost  perfect  enjoyment. 

"  He  seems  a  man  without  a  wish  that  has  its  object 

1  October  3,  1788. 


ip8         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

in  the  terrestrial  globe.  At  night  Mr.  Herschel,  by  the 
King's  command,  came  to  exhibit  to  His  Majesty  and 
the  Royal  Family  the  new  comet  lately  discovered  by 
his  sister,  Miss  Herschel ;  and  while  I  was  playing  at 
piquet  with  Mrs.  Schwellenberg,  the  Princess  Augusta 
came  into  the  room,  and  asked  her  if  she  chose  to  go 
into  the  garden  and  look  at  it.  She  declined  the  offer, 
and  the  Princess  then  made  it  to  me.  I  was  glad  to 
accept  it  for  all  sorts  of  reasons.  We  found  him  at 
his  telescope.  The  comet  was  very  small,  and  had 
nothing  grand  or  striking  in  its  appearance ;  but  it  is 
the  first  lady's  comet,  and  I  was  very  desirous  to  see 
it.  Mr.  Herschel  then  shewed  me  some  of  his  new 
discovered  universes,  with  all  the  good  humour  with 
which  he  would  have  taken  the  same  trouble  for  a 
brother  or  a  sister  astronomer ;  there  is  no  possibility 
of  admiring  his  genius  more  than  his  gentleness." 

Of  these  four  paragraphs  the  first  and  the  last  show 
undisguised,  genuine  admiration  of  this  hero  of  the 
stars  by  a  heroine  of  the  pen,  "for  all  sorts  of  reasons."1 
It  was  the  queen  of  literature  crowning  the  king  and 
high  priest  of  the  stars  with  the  laurel  wreath  of 
a  world's  homage.  Perhaps  it  was  more  than  this, 
different  though  the  ages  of  the  king  and  queen  were. 
But  the  second  of  the  four  paragraphs  is  of  a  different 
nature.  It  hints  at  dangers  and  difficulties,  which  do 
not  square  with  .Caroline  Herschel's  Memoirs.  They 
may  be  explained  by  Miss  Burney's  knowledge  of  the 

1  Miss  Burney  tells  the  story  of  love's  progress  in  her  novel  of  Evelina, 
written  some  time  before  :  "  How  rapid  was  then  my  Evelina's  progress 
through  those  regions  of  fancy  and  passion,  whither  her  new  guide 
conducted  her  !  She  saw  Lord  Orville  at  a  ball— and  he  was  the  most 
amiabl  of  men!  She  met  him  again  at  another— and  he  had  every 
virtue  under  heaven  I "  (Evelina,  ii.  149). 


"AN  EXTRAORDINARY  MAN"        199 

talk  and  whispers  among  the  King's  equerries  at 
Windsor  Castle.  That  a  man  should  be  "wretched" 
and  "  in  danger  of  ruin,"  who  had  established  himself 
at  Bath  and  was  making  a  large  income  there,1  points 
to  something  more  serious  than  she  could  realise  or 
wished  to  repeat.  Probably  the  equerries  knew  about 
it,  and,  without  revealing  secrets,  gave  her  an  indis- 
tinct idea  that  something  was  or  had  been  seriously 
wrong. 

At  the  very  end  of  1786,  Miss  Burney  is  still  in 
raptures:  "This  morning  my  dear  father  carried  me 
to  Dr.  Herschel.  That  great  and  very  extraordinary 
man  received  us  almost  with  open  arms.  He  is  very 
fond  of  my  father,  who  is  one  of  the  council  of  the 
Royal  Society  this  year,  as  well  as  himself."  The 
fondness  and  the  friendship  must  have  been  common- 
place, when,  twelve  years  later,  Dr.  Burney  did  not 
know  that  Dr.  Herschel  had  been  married  for  ten 
years,  and  was  the  father  of  a  son  six  years  of  age. 
But  the  young  lady's  admiration  knows  no  abatement. 
Nine  months  after,  it  rises  to,  "  Dr.  Herschel  is  a 
delightful  man ;  so  unassuming  with  his  great  know- 
ledge, so  willing  to  dispense  it  to  the  ignorant,  and 
so  cheerful  and  easy  in  his  general  manners  that,  were 
he  no  genius,  it  would  be  impossible  not  to  remark 
him  as  a  pleasing  and  sensible  man."  Miss  Burney 's 
picture  is  not  over-coloured,  according  to  the  evidence 
of  other  eye-witnesses.  She  was  then  thirty-four  years 
of  age,  and  seven  years  after  married  a  French  emi- 
grant, without  fortune  and  without  prospects.  En- 
thusiasm such  as  she  showed  for  William  Herschel, 

1  Memoirs,  p.  321,  "Was  called  from  his  lucrative  employment  at 
Bath." 


200         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  pardonably  showed,  may  have  been  akin  to  a 
warmer  feeling;  but  his  marriage  for  money,  partly 
at  least,  somewhat  cooled  her  raptures,  or  her  hopes. 

Dr.  Burney  has  also  presented  the  world  with  word- 
pictures  of  himself  and  Herschel,  which  are  full  of 
life  and  amusement.  As  time  went  on,  he  was  fired 
with  the  ambition  of  distinguishing  himself  in  poetry 
as  well  as  music.  He  believed  he  had  wing-power 
sufficient  to  soar  to  heights  of  poetry  as  high  as 
Newton  or  Herschel  reached  in  prose.  He  proposed 
in  fact  to  write  a  Newtoniad  and  a  Herscheliad  for 
the  enlightenment  of  future  ages.  He  made  no  secret 
of  his  purpose;  his  daughters  encouraged  him  to 
undertake  the  work;  Herschel  was  consulted,  was 
flattered,  was  persuaded  or  cajoled.  The  King,  the 
Queen,  the  Princesses  heard  of  the  great  work ;  the 
Court,  of  course,  whatever  some  people  of  sense  may 
have  thought  or  said,  echoed  the  wishes  and  praises 
of  their  superiors,  and  the  poet  proceeded,  amidst 
applause,  to  complete  his  Poetical  History  of  Astro- 
nomy. It  was  the  age  of  didactic  poems.  Darwin's 
Botanic  Garden  had  been  a  success,  and  parts  of  it 
were  so  written  that  they  deserved  and  won  the 
applause  of  intelligent  readers.  Probably  Dr.  Burney 
imagined  that  astronomy,  which  was  then  filling  the 
world  with  wonder,  was  an  equally  good  field  for 
a  great  poem.  He  certainly  believed  that  it  was  a 
book  he  was  competent  to  write :  but,  while  he  was 
convinced  of  his  ability  to  ascend  to  the  heights  of 
Parnassus,  he  had  doubts  of  his  knowledge  of  the 
science.  To  solve  these  doubts  an  interview  with 
Herschel  was  necessary.  The  story  then  proceeds, 
September  28,  1798. 


DR.  BURNEY'S  VISIT  AND  POEM     201 

"I  drove  through  Slough  in  order  to  ask  at  Dr. 
Herschel's  door  when  my  visit  would  be  least  incon- 
venient to  him — that  night  or  next  morning.  The 
good  soul  was  at  dinner,  but  came  to  the  door  himself 
to  press  me  to  alight  immediately,  and  partake  of  his 
family  repast:  and  this  he  did  so  heartily  that  I 
could  not  resist.  ...  I  expected  (not  knowing  that 
Herschel  was  married)  only  to  have  found  Miss  Her- 
schel;  but  there  was  a  very  old  lady,  the  mother,  I 
believe,  of  Mrs.  Herschel,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the 
table  herself,  and  a  Scots  lady  (a  Miss  Wilson,  daughter 
of  Dr.  Wilson  of  Glasgow,  an  eminent  astronomer), 
Miss  Herschel,  and  a  little  boy.  They  rejoiced  at  the 
accident,  which  had  brought  me  there,  and  hoped  I 
would  send  my  carriage  away  and  take  a  bed  with 
them. 

"  We  soon  grew  acquainted — I  mean  the  ladies  and 
I — and  before  dinner  was  over  we  seemed  old  friends 
just  met  after  a  long  absence.  Mrs.  Herschel  is 
sensible,  good-humoured,  unpretending,  and  well-bred  ; 
Miss  Herschel  all  shyness  and  virgin  modesty;  the 
Scots  lady  sensible  and  harmless;  and  the  little  boy 
entertaining,  promising,  and  comical.  Herschel,  you 
know,  and  everybody  knows,  is  one  of  the  most 
pleasing  and  well-bred  natural  characters  of  the  pre- 
sent age,  as  well  as  the  greatest  astronomer." 

"  The  shyness  and  virgin  modesty "  of  little  Miss 
Herschel,  at  the  youthful  age  of  forty-eight,  are  over- 
done in  this  word-picture  by  Dr.  Burney.  Could  we 
have  got  her  views  of  their  visitor's  flattery  and 
folly,  they  would  perhaps  have  been  an  amusing 
addition  to  the  fund  of  drollery  and  acidity,  with 
which  her  recollections  are  pleasantly  flavoured.  And 


202         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

they  would  have  been  to  the  point.  When  Dr.  Burney 
made  Herschel  aware  of  his  purpose  in  calling,  the 
latter  insisted  on  the  trunk  being  unpacked,  the 
poem  produced,  and  the  reading  finished  then  and 
there.  What  the  poet  knew  would  be  the  work  of 
a  week  or  a  month,  if  the  book  had  been  finished, 
the  astronomer  hoped  to  get  out  of  the  road  as 
speedily  as  he  would  an  ordinary  observation  on  a 
starry  night.  He  found  himself  buttonholed  to  in- 
stalments that  spread  over  many  months,  and  seem 
to  have  grown  very  captivating,  though  he  must  have 
soon  seen  that,  if  his  was  the  sword  of  fame,  Burney 
considered  his  tongue  as  the  more  important  trumpet, 
that  would  blow  that  fame  abroad  to  all  time.  But 
the  situation  was  full  of  surprises.  "  He  made  a 
discovery  to  me,"  Dr.  Burney  goes  on  to  say,  "  which 
had  I  known  it  sooner,  would  have  overset  me,  and 
prevented  my  reading  any  part  of  my  work.  He 
said  that  he  had  almost  always  had  an  aversion  to 
poetry,  which  he  regarded  as  the  arrangement  of 
fine  words,  without  any  useful  meaning  or  adher- 
ence to  truth ;  but  that  when  truth  and  science  were 
united  to  these  fine  words,  he  liked  poetry  very 
well."  This  is  rather  an  odd  confession  to  come 
from  a  man  whose  sister  tells  us,  "  He  composed  glees, 
catches,  etc.,  for  such  voices  as  he  could  secure,  as  it 
was  not  easy  to  find  a  singer  to  take  the  place  of 
Miss  Linley." 1  However,  Dr.  Burney  managed  to 
persuade  him  that  in  his  didactic  poem  fine  words 
were  united  to  science  and  truth.  The  astronomer 
called  on  the  poet  in  town,  lived  in  his  house,  and 

1  Was  the  song  referred  to  on  p.  321  of  the  Memoirs,  "In  thee  I  bear 
so  dear  a  part,"  his  own?     It  "was  going  to  be  published  by  desire." 


THE  HERSCHELIAD  203 

gave  audience  to  his  verses :  "  Herschel  was  so  humble 
as  to  confess  that  I  knew  more  of  the  history  of 
astronomy  than  he  did,  and  had  surprised  him  with 
the  mass  of  information  I  had  got  together.  .  .  .  He 
thanked  me  for  the  entertainment  and  instruction 
I  had  given  him.  '  Can  anything  be  grander  ? '  and 
all  this  before  he  knows  a  word  of  what  I  have 
said  of  himself  —  all  his  discoveries,  as  you  may 
remember,  being  kept  back  for  the  twelfth  and  last 
book." 

After  an  interval  of  seven  months  and  more,  a  long 
story  follows  of  Herschel's  patience  and  good  humour 
under  repeated  doses  of  poetry,  conceit,  and  undue 
self-importance  from  Dr.  Burney.  The  latter's  letter 
to  his  daughter,  then  Madame  D'Arblay,  is  dated, 
"  Slough,  Monday  morning,  July  22,  1799,  in  bed 
at  Dr.  Herschel's,  half -past  five,  where  I  can  neither 
sleep  nor  lie  idle,"  and  runs  thus:  "I  believe  I  told 
you  on  Friday  that  I  was  going  to  finish  the  perusal 
of  my  astronomical  verses  to  the  great  astronomer 
on  Saturday."  Burney  had  already  read  to  him  the 
Newtoniad,  and  other  pieces.  He  was  now  come  to 
the  Herscheliad,  about  twenty  years  too  soon,  for 
the  astronomer  had  not  reached  the  height  of  his 
fame  in  1799.  "After  tea  Herschel  proposed  that 
we  two  should  retire  into  a  quiet  room  in  order  to 
resume  the  perusal  of  my  work,  in  which  no  progress 
has  been  made  since  last  December.  The  evening  was 
finished  very  cheerfully ;  and  we  went  to  our  bowers 
not  much  out  of  humour  with  each  other  or  the 
world."  Much  more  follows,  revealing  the  self-com- 
placency and  conceit  of  the  man,  along  with  the 
modesty  and  retiring  nature  of  Herschel.  There  were 


204         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

only  two  men  on  the  terrace  or  in  the  Castle  concert- 
room  that  evening,  the  King  and  Dr.  Burney;  and 
the  important  subject  talked  of  was  Dr.  Burney 's 
poem. 

Herschel's  friendship  with  Dr.  Wilson,1  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Astronomy  in  Glasgow  University,  was 
probably  the  reason  of  repeated  visits  paid  by  him 
to  Scotland.  Of  the  first  of  these  visits  no  notice 
is  taken  by  his  sister,  a  somewhat  singular  omission. 
It  was  paid  in  the  summer  of  1792.  The  second 
known  visit  was  made  eighteen  years  after,  is  briefly 
referred  to  by  his  sister,  and  is  confounded  by  his 
biographers  with  that  of  1792.  It  took  place  in  1810. 
A  third  visit,  obscurely  hinted  at  by  his  sister,  took 
place  the  following  year.  In  a  paper  read  to  the 
Royal  Society  in  1812,  he  mentions  an  observation 
of  the  comet  of  1811  made  by  him  at  Glasgow,  and 
records  another  which  he  made  at  Alnwick  on  his 
way  south,  some  weeks  later.  That  Glasgow  may 
have  been  to  Herschel  a  place  of  summer  pilgrimage 
more  frequently  than  on  these  three  visits  seems  not 
improbable.  His  friendship  with  the  Wilsons  and 
their  families,  like  that  with  Dr.  Watson,  was  close  and 
long  continued,  the  friendship  of  worthy  men,  holding 
each  other  in  the  highest  esteem.  As  he  visited  Dr. 
Watson  at  Bath  and  Dawlish,  so  he  appears  to  have 
visited  the  Wilsons  at  Glasgow.  At  any  rate  we 
know  that  he  "  was  generally  from  home  "  in  summer. 

When  Herschel  was  in  Scotland  in  the  summer 
of  1792,  he  was  accompanied  by  a  Russian  friend, 
General  Komarzewsky.  So  intimate  were  the  two 

1  Alexander  "Wilson  was  Professor  of  Astronomy  from  1760  to  1784  ; 
his  son  Patrick  from  1784  to  1799. 


FREEDOM  OF  GLASGOW  205 

that  the  General  "  used  to  say  to  Herschel,  Why  does 
not  he  (meaning  King  George  in.)  make  you  Duke 
of  Slough  ? "  Probably  his  sister  thought  the  same, 
but  the  pardonable  flattery  created  a  bond  between 
them,  which  she  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  forgotten. 
On  reaching  Glasgow,  Herschel  found  a  pleasant 
surprise  awaiting  him  and  his  friend,  as  new  as  it 
was  unexpected.  Both  of  them  were  to  be  honoured 
with  the  freedom  of  the  city.  Glasgow  was  then  a 
town,  where  salmon-fishers  dried  their  nets  on  that 
busy  centre  of  trade,  the  Broomielaw,  and  was 
inhabited  by  not  more  than  a  tenth  of  its  present 
population ;  but  its  magistrates  were  far-seeing  men, 
who  crowned  their  city  with  honour  when  they 
formally  entered  on  their  Burgess  Roll  the  name  of 
William  Herschel.  Their  Council  Records  contain 
the  following:1 — 

"  GLASGOW,  19th  June  1792. 

"The  said  day  Dr.  William  Herschel,  Astronomer, 
and  General  Homarseuski  are  unanimously  admitted 
honorary  Burgesses  and  Guild  Brethren  of  this  City." 

An  Edinburgh  newspaper2  recorded  the  homage 
thus  paid  to  science  by  the  merchant  city  of  the 
west,  but  the  Edinburgh  Town  Council,  neither  then 
nor  subsequently,  followed  the  example  so  honourably 
set  by  Glasgow. 

1  I   am    indebted    for  this  extract  to  the  kindness  of  Sir  James 
Marwick,  the  Town  Clerk  of  Glasgow. 

There  appears  to  be  some  doubt  about  the  spelling  of  the  Russian 
name  in  the  Council  Record. 

2  Edinburgh  Courant,  June  28,  1792. 


206         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Another  visit  paid  by  Herschel  was  to  Paris  at 
the  commencement  of  the  shortlived  peace  of  Amiens 
in  1801.  From  the  brief  notes  preserved  in  his  sister's 
Memoirs  it  appears  that,  on  July  13,  "my  brother, 
Mrs.  H.,  my  nephew  John,  and  Miss  Baldwin  left 
Slough  to  go  to  Paris."  The  next  entry  is,  "  Aug.  25th. 
— All  returned  with  my  nephew  dangerously  ill. 
Going  daily  for  some  hours  to  work  at  the  Observa- 
tory, and  to  receive  visitors  and  letters,  had  not 
hastened  my  recovery,  for  it  required  no  less  than 
seven  months  before  I  could  be  without  the  attend- 
ance of  Dr.  Pope."  During  these  weeks  of  holiday 
in  France,  Herschel  had  opportunities  of  renewing 
or  strengthening  the  friendly  feelings  with  which  the 
astronomers  of  that  country,  during  an  age  of  great 
hostility  between  the  two  nations,  regarded  the 
labours  of  their  English  brethren.  They  had  shown 
their  esteem  for  him  in  particular  by  choosing  him 
as  a  member  of  the  Institute,  one  of  the  highest 
honours  that  could  be  bestowed  on  a  man  of  science. 
But  his  visit  was  made  more  remarkable  by  an 
interview  with  Napoleon  Buonaparte,  who  was  then 
First  Consul,  and  afterwards  Emperor.  Twelve  years 
later  he  gave  an  account  of  it  to  Thomas  Campbell, 
the  poet,  who  met  him  at  Brighton,  and  thus  records 
the  story : 1 — 

"  I  was  anxious  to  get  from  him  as  many  particulars 
as  I  could  about  his  interview  with  Buonaparte. 
The  latter,  it  was  reported,  had  astonished  him  by  his 
astronomical  knowledge. 

"  c  No/  he  said ;  '  the  First  Consul  did  surprise  me  by 
his  quickness  and  versatility  on  all  subjects;  but  in 
1  Beattie's  Life  of  Campbell,  ii.  234,  235,  239. 


INTERVIEW  WITH   NAPOLEON       207 

science  he  seemed  to  know  little  more  than  any  well- 
educated  gentleman,  and  of  astronomy  much  less 
for  instance  than  our  own  King.  His  general  air/ 
he  said,  '  was  something  like  affecting  to  know  more 
than  he  did  know/  He  was  high  and  tried  to  be 
great  with  Herschel,  I  suppose,  without  success ;  and 
1 1  remarked/  said  the  astronomer,  '  his  hypocrisy  in 
concluding  the  conversation  on  astronomy  by  observing 
how  all  these  glorious  views  gave  proofs  of  an 
Almighty  Wisdom.'  I  asked  him  if  he  thought  the 
system  of  Laplace  to  be  quite  certain,  with  regard 
to  the  total  security  of  the  planetary  system  from 
the  effects  of  gravitation  losing  its  present  balance? 
He  said,  No ;  he  thought  by  no  means  that  the  universe 
was  secured  from  the  chance  of  sudden  losses  of 
parts." 

It  is  unfortunate  that  no  other  record  exists  of  the 
estimate  formed  of  Napoleon  by  Herschel.  Campbell 
may  have  imported  into  the  astronomer's  words  turns 
of  thought  which  he  never  meant  to  convey,  and  a 
man  is  sometimes  more  free  of  speech  in  conversa- 
tion than  he  would  be  in  print.  An  interviewer,  as 
modern  journalism  has  proved,  may,  even  without 
knowing  it,  give  an  unhappy  twist  to  a  man's  words 
and  thoughts.  Assuming,  however,  that  the  poet's 
report  is  strictly  correct,  and  remembering  that  the 
great  bitterness  of  Herschel's  life  sprang  from  a 
French  victory,  unforgettable  by  him  or  his  relations, 
his  words  must  be  received  with  a  discount  unavoid- 
able in  the  circumstances.  Both  poet  and  astronomer 
show  their  feelings,  perhaps,  by  the  use  of  the  long 
obsolete  title  "First  Consul"  instead  of  the  better 
known  "Emperor,"  and  it  ought  never  to  have  been 


208         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

said  that  Napoleon,  a  trained  and  experienced  officer 
of  artillery,   a  member  of   the  mathematical  section 
of  the  Institute  of   France,  and  the   founder   of   the 
Egyptian  Institute,  knew  little  more  of  science  than 
any  well-educated  gentleman.     To  compare  his  know- 
ledge of  astronomy  with  that  of  George  in.  is  unfair. 
If  Herschel  meant  nothing  more  than  what  the  King 
learned   from   him   and   Mainburg   and    Be  vis  during 
half  a  century,  of  the  ways  and  methods  of  observing, 
it   may   be   perfectly   true,   and   yet   may  have  been 
such   as   Napoleon,   with   his   natural    quickness   and 
his  knowledge   of   mathematics,   could    have    picked 
up   in   an   hour   or   two.     But   a   comparison  of   the 
two   men  —  one   doing   little   more   than   signing  his 
name,   the    other    leading    mighty    armies,    fighting 
terrible  battles,  and  ruling  almost  a  whole  continent 
— seems  exceedingly  absurd,  from  an  intellectual  point 
of  view.     Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that  Napoleon, 
by  taking  the  learned  men  of  France  to  Egypt  with 
him,   entertaining   them   at   his   table    on    shipboard, 
and    protecting    them   in   their  researches,   laid   the 
foundation   of  a  new  science,  which   has  filled  man- 
kind  with   wonder — the   languages   and   records   of 
the  ancient   worlds   of   Egypt   and  Assyria.     To  say 
that   he   affected   to   know  more   than   he  did  know 
was,   if   true,   a  justifiable  pretence  in  a  man  ruling 
over  many  nations,   and   absorbed   in    multitudinous 
details.       But    to    charge    him   with    hypocrisy   for 
expressing  his   views   on   Almighty   Wisdom    is   not 
creditable  to  either  poet  or  astronomer.     If  Herschel 
conversed  with  him  by  means  of  an  interpreter,  the 
latter  may  have  done,  and  possibly  would  do,  injustice 
to  the  Emperor,  perhaps  to  the  astronomer  also.     But 


CAMPBELL'S  VISIT  TO  HERSCHEL  209 

it  is  not  likely  that  Napoleon,  who  wrote  to  Laplace 
about  his  great  works,  and  was  on  intimate  terms  with 
the  greatest  minds  of  France,  would  descend  to  parade 
knowledge  he  did  not  possess,  or  indulge  in  a  hypocrisy 
that  was  altogether  out  of  place.  Even  his  biographer 
writes,  "The  impression  left  upon  Campbell's  mind 
by  this  conversation  appears  to  have  been  a  little 
too  strong." 

Far  more  pleasant  is  the  view  given  by  Campbell  of 
the  astronomer  himself.  "I  spent  all  Sunday  with 
him  and  his  family,"  he  says.  "  His  simplicity,  his 
kindness,  his  anecdotes,  his  readiness  to  explain — and 
make  perfectly  perspicuous  too — his  own  sublime  con- 
ceptions of  the  universe  are  indescribably  charming. 
He  is  seventy-six,  but  fresh  and  stout ;  and  there 
he  sat,  nearest  the  door,  at  his  friend's  house,  alter- 
nately smiling  at  a  joke,  or  contentedly  sitting 
without  share  or  notice  in  the  conversation.  Any 
train  of  conversation  he  follows  implicitly ;  anything 
you  ask  he  labours  with  a  sort  of  boyish  earnestness 
to  explain — a  great,  simple,  good  old  man."  The 
impression  made  on  Campbell's  mind  is  summed  up 
in  these  words :  "  I  really  and  unfeignedly  felt  as 
if  I  had  been  conversing  with  a  supernatural  intelli- 
gence. .  .  .  After  leaving  Herschel  I  felt  elevated  and 
overcome;  and  have  in  writing  to  you  made  only 
this  memorandum  of  some  of  the  most  interesting 
moments  of  my  life." 

A  German  writer,  who  paid  a  visit  to  Herschel  at 
Slough  a  few  years  afterwards,  has  left  an  equally 
pleasant  picture  of  the  astronomer-sage. 

"While  we  were  standing  by  this  machine  (the 
great  telescope),  which  we  more  admired  than  com- 
14 


210         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

prehended,  its  master  appeared,  a  cheerful  old  man, 
aged  eighty-one.  How  unassumingly  did  he  make 
his  communications !  How  lightly  did  he  ascend  the 
steps  to  the  gallery !  With  what  calm  pleasure  did 
he  seem  to  enjoy  the  success  of  his  efforts  in  life !  All 
accounts  from  his  native  country  appeared  to  please 
him,  although  the  German  language  had  become 
somewhat  less  familiar  to  his  ear.  After  a  short 
conversation,  we  took  our  leave,  charged  with  friendly 
greetings  to  all  beyond  the  sea,  who  might  still  remem- 
ber him. 

"  Herschel  is  unmarried,  but  his  sister  Caroline  resides 
with  him,  not  only  as  a  superintendent  of  his  house- 
hold, and  support  of  his  old  age,  but  also  as  a  partaker 
of  his  studies.  She  has  been  his  constant  assistant 
in  his  labours,  and  has  made  some  discoveries  herself, 
among  which  were  five  comets  in  the  years  1786, 
1791,  a  dissertation  on  which  she  laid  before  the 
Royal  Society.  Both  of  them  enjoy  the  love  and 
esteem  of  all  that  approach  them. 

"Herschel's  earthly  labour  is  now,  I  presume,  at 
an  end,  and  the  time  cannot  be  far  distant  when  we 
shall  be  able  to  say  of  him, 

'Candidas  consuetum  miratur  limen  Olympi, 
Sub  pedibusque,— nubes  et  sidera  videt."' 

In  terms  of  his  appointment  as  King's  Astronomer, 
Herschel  was  bound  to  receive  visitors  sent  from 
Windsor  Castle,  and  to  explain  to  them  his  instruments, 
as  well  as  to  act  the  part  of  showman  of  the  heavens. 
Probably  this  dangling  at  the  heels  of  titled  nothings 
brought  him  money  from  the  sale  of  telescopes,  but  it 
was  a  tax  on  his  time  and  strength,  which  his  sister 


VISITORS  AT  SLOUGH  211 

saw    and    dreaded    from    the    first.      "I   know   how 
wretched   and  feverish  one  feels  after  two  or  three 
nights'  waking,"  Caroline  writes  of  her  own  all-night 
vigils.     With  a  woman's  quickness  for  those  she  loves, 
she  sometimes  managed  to  shield  her  brother,  wearied, 
like  her,  with  an  all-night  sitting,  from  these  thought- 
less callers.     "  In  my  way  into  the  garden,"  she  writes, 
as  far  back  as   1797,  "I  was  met   and  detained   by 
Lord  S.  and  another  gentleman,  who  came  to  see  my 
brother  and  his  telescopes.     By  way  of  preventing  too 
long  an  interruption,  I  told  the  gentlemen  that  I  had 
just  found  a  comet,  and  wanted  to  settle  its  place.     I 
pointed  it  out  to  them,  and  after  having  seen  it  they 
took  their  leave."     But  she  could  not  always  thus  act 
the   part   of  guardian   angel.      On   October   4,   1806, 
"  two  parties  from  the  Castle  came  to  see  the  comet," 
observed    two   days  before,   "and   during   the   whole 
month  my  brother  had  not  an  evening  to  himself.  .  .  . 
It  has  ever   been   my  opinion   that   on   the   14th  of 
October   his   nerves   received   a   shock    of   which    he 
never  got  the  better  afterwards ;  for  on  that  day  (in 
particular)  he  had  hardly  dismissed  his  troop  of  men," 
assisting  him  in  the  laborious  work  of  polishing  the 
40-feet  mirror,  "  when  visitors  assembled,  and  from  the 
time  it  was  dark  till  past  midnight  he  was  on  the 
grass-plot    surrounded    by   between    fifty   and    sixty 
persons,   without    having  had   time    for    putting  on 
proper  clothing,  or  for  the  least  nourishment  passing 
his  lips.     Among  the  company,  I  remember,  were  the 
Duke   of    Sussex,   Prince   Galitzin,   Lord   Darnley,   a 
number  of  officers,  Admiral  Boston,  and  some  ladies." 
The  picture  is  outlined  with  a  clearness  nothing  but 
strong  feeling  could  inspire ;  the  strain  was  manifestly 


212          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

too  great,  and  it  was  tearing  down  his  enfeebled  frame. 
For  sixteen  years  the  battle  continued ;  the  phases  of 
it  are  recorded  by  his  biographer,  and  little  remains 
but  to  trace  in  her  words,  how  year  after  year  saw  his 
strength  declining  and  the  flame  of  life  dying  out.  At 
the  same  time  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  Herschel 
and  his  wife  allowed  this  process  of  painful  decay  to 
go  forward  unchecked.  He  did  not  require  thus  to  die 
in  harness  actually  by  inches.  Both  of  them  were 
wealthy ; l  and  though  he  had  resigned  office,  it  is  not 
probable  that  his  pension  would  have  been  withdrawn. 
But  the  story  of  fading  strength  is  told  in  words  that 
cannot  be  explained  away. 

"When  all  hopes  for  the  return  of  vigour  and  strength 
necessary  for  resuming  the  unfinished  task  of  polishing 
the  great  mirror  was  gone,  all  cheerfulness  and  spirits 
had  also  forsaken  him,  and  his  temper  was  changed 
from  the  sweetest  almost  to  a  pettish  one;  and  for 
that  reason  I  was  obliged  to  refrain  from  troubling 
him  with  any  questions,  though  ever  so  necessary,  for 
fear  of  irritating  or  fatiguing  him."  Want  of  room, 
the  refusal  of  funds  to  meet  expenses,  the  great 
telescope  "nearly  fallen  into  decay  almost  in  all  its 
parts,"  "every  nerve  of  the  dear  man  unstrung  by 
over-exertion,"  may  well  send  a  thrill  of  sympathetic 
sorrow  through  every  reader  of  the  story.  Neither 
Brighton  nor  Bath,  nor  summer  visits  to  Edinburgh 
or  Glasgow  could  restore  the  lost  tone :  "  A  farther 
attempt  at  leaving  the  work  complete  became  im- 
possible." How  sorrowful  the  entries  for  more  than  a 

1  His  personal  effects  are  set  down  in  his  will  at  £6000,  and  he  left 
£25,000  more  in  3  per  cent.  Keduced  Annuities  to  his  son,  besides 
other  large  legacies. 


OVERWORK  AND  DECAY  213 

twelvemonth  after  !  "  My  brother  not  well,"  "  his  life 
despaired  of,"  "  permitted  to  see  him,  but  only  for  two 
or  three  minutes " !  And  in  this  time  of  distress  the 
worthless  Dietrich  is  causing  them  no  end  of  trouble 
by  his  conduct.  Let  it  be  said  on  his  behalf  that  his 
daughter,  Mrs.  Knipping,  atoned  in  future  years,  to 
some  extent  at  least,  for  her  father's  shortcomings. 
She  was  the  faithful  and  trusted  attendant  of  her 
aunt  Caroline  during  the  last  years  of  her  long  life. 
As  years  roll  on,  the  record  remains  equally  mournful : 
"  His  strength  is  now  (1815),  and  has  for  the  last  two 
or  three  years  not  been  equal  to  the  labour  required 
for  polishing  40-feet  mirrors";  at  a  Royal  "fete  at 
Frogmore"  (1817)  "I  was  obliged  to  go  home  with  my 
brother,"  who  "  found  himself  too  feeble  to  remain  in 
company."  But  feebleness  and  ill-health  gave  no 
remission  from  a  showman's  duty:  "The  Archduke 
Michael  of  Russia,  with  a  numerous  attendance,  came 
to  see  Jupiter,"  etc.  (1818).  Princesses,  archdukes,  lords 
and  ladies  came  to  see  many  objects  in  the  10-ft.and  other 
telescopes  (1819),  unaware  that  the  sage-astronomer, 
whom  they  were  treating  as  a  showman,  was  hastening 
to  the  grave.  His  sister  "  with  much  concern  saw  that 
he  had  exerted  himself  too  much  above  his  strength." 

"  A  small  slip  of  yellow  paper  "  traced  by  a  tremu- 
lously feeble  hand,  indicating  the  appearance  of  "  a 
great  comet  with  a  long  tail,"  was  among  the  last 
communications  from  Herschel  to  his  sister.  She  kept 
it  as  a  relic  of  a  lamp  of  life  that  once  burned  brightly, 
and  was  then  flickering  in  the  socket.  For  three  years 
it  continued  to  flicker,  till  the  end  came,  on  August  25, 
1822.  A  noble  light  of  humanity  and  science  then  set 
for  ever  on  this  earthly  scene, 


214         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  writings  of  Herschel  may  be  said  to  be  contained 
in  that  wonderful  repository  of  science  and  observation, 
The  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society.  He  contri- 
buted sometimes  one,  sometimes  two  or  three  or  four 
papers  in  a  year  between  1780  and  1818,  except  in  the 
years  1813  and  1816.  Few  scientific  writers  were  so 
active  with  their  pen.  Everard  Home,  in  a  different 
sphere  of  research,  surpassed  him  in  the  number  of  his 
contributions ;  but  two  thousand  quarto  pages — to  say 
nothing  of  valuable  and  instructive  diagrams — filled 
with  wonderful  discoveries,  rare  or  useful  observations, 
noble  theories,  and  lofty  imaginings  formed  a  life-work 
of  unusual  merit.  They  were  written  in  a  language 
that  became  familiar  to  him  in  a  foreign  country  only 
after  he  passed  his  twentieth  year.  Titles  and  text 
are  not  unfrequently  somewhat  prolix,  but  what  was 
a  peculiarity  of  the  age  cannot  be  attributed  as  a  fault 
to  Herschel.  His  sister,  to  whom  the  world  is  indebted 
for  the  form  in  which  not  a  few  of  these  papers 
appeared,  carefully  preserved  seventy-two  of  her 
brother's  in  five  volumes,  which  she  transferred  to 
his  son's  keeping  in  1830.  Only  sixty -nine  papers 
were  laid  before  the  Royal  Society  and  one  before  the 
Royal  Astronomical.  What  the  other  contents  of  her 
bundle  were  she  has  not  informed  us. 

In  the  writings  of  Herschel  and  his  sister  there  is  a 
singular  silence  on  the  affairs  of  another  world  than 
this  material  universe,  in  whose  vast  surroundings  we 
spend  our  brief  earthly  life.  However,  it  is  not  an 
unbroken  silence.  His  sister  repeatedly  refers  to  a 
future  state,  and  to  a  home  she  longed  for,  a  meeting- 
place  with  those  she  loved  and  worked  with  on  earth. 
She  left  England  less  than  two  months  after  her 


HERSCHEL'S  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENTS  215 

brother  William's  death,  "parted  with  her  little 
property,"  and  "  thought  at  that  time  she  should  not 
live  a  twelvemonth."  She  lived  for  twenty-six  years 
after,  "alone"  and  disappointed.  During  that  long 
period  she  gave  expression  to  hopes  which  may  be 
justly  regarded  as  echoes  of  sentiments  expressed  by 
her  brother.  Unquestionably  her  mind  was  a  mirror 
that  truly  reflected  his.  It  is  evident  also  from  his 
conversation  with  Thomas  Campbell  that  he  enter- 
tained a  horror  of  hypocrisy,  which  may  have  imposed 
silence  on  him  when  he  would  otherwise  have  spoken 
out.  Once,  in  a  philosophical  paper,  he  did  speak  out 
on  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments.  Had 
the  matter  not  lain  very  near  his  heart,  he  would 
scarcely  have  written  as  he  did.  The  subject  of  the 
paper  was  the  Constitution  of  the  Sun.  Referring 
to  the  views  of  certain  writers  on  the  place  of  punish- 
ment for  the  wicked,  he  says — 

"  The  sun,  viewed  in  this  light,  appears  to  be  nothing 
else  than  a  very  eminent,  large,  and  lucid  planet, 
evidently  the  first,  or  in  strictness  of  speaking,  the 
only  primary  one  of  our  system ;  all  others  being  truly 
secondary  to  it.  Its  similarity  to  the  other  globes  of 
the  solar  system  with  regard  to  its  solidity,  its 
atmosphere,  and  its  diversified  surface;  the  rotation 
upon  its  axis,  and  the  fall  of  heavy  bodies,  leads  us  on 
to  suppose  that  it  is  most  probably  inhabited,  like 
the  rest  of  the  planets,  by  beings  whose  organs  are 
adapted  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  that  vast 
globe. 

"  Whatever  fanciful  poets  might  say,  in  making  the 
sun  the  abode  of  blessed  spirits,  or  angry  moralists 
devise,  in  pointing  it  out  as  a  fit  place  for  the  punish- 


216         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

ment  of  the  wicked,  it  does  not  appear  that  they  had 
any  other  foundation  for  their  assertions  than  mere 
opinion  and  vague  surmise;  but  now  I  think  my- 
self authorized,  upon  astronomical  principles,  to 
propose  the  sun  as  an  inhabitable  world,  and  am 
persuaded  that  the  foregoing  observations,  with  the 
conclusions  I  have  drawn  from  them,  are  fully 
sufficient  to  answer  every  objection  that  may  be 
made  against  it." 

A  man  who  filled  the  world  with  his  renown  as 
Herschel  did,  and  who  charmed  all  who  happened  to 
meet  him  as  we  know  he  charmed  Miss  Burney, 
Thomas  Campbell,  and  Niemeyer,  could  not  have  been 
expected  to  leave  this  life  without  worthy  commemora- 
tion from  a  poet's  pen.  Dr.  Burney's  Herscheliad 
was  never  published ;  Campbell  preserved  silence 
except  in  poetic  prose,  written  while  the  astronomer 
was  still  living ;  and  no  one  seems  to  have  addressed 
himself  to  what  was  almost  a  duty  of  the  age,  except  a 
writer,  who  hailed  from  Teversal  Rectory,  and  was 
unable  to  force  Uranus  with  its  proper  quantity  into  a 
line  of  poetry.1 

"  Herschel,  alas,  great  astronomic  sage, 
Has  sunk  in  death,  yet  full  of  honoured  age, 
Through  widest  space  the  heavenly  orbs  he  viewed, 
The  comet's  track,  and  stars  unnumbered  shewed  ; 
Ouranus  first  he  saw,  with  all  its  train, 
And  fires  volcanic  found  in  Luna's  plain." 

The  Herscheliad  could  scarcely  have  contained  poorer 
or  more  unworthy  lines. 

Far  more  worthy  of  record  is  the  eulogium  passed 
by  Arago :  "  We  may  confidently  assert,  relative  to  the 

1  Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  xcii.  (1822). 


ARAGO'S  EULOGIUM  217 

little  house  and  garden  of  Slough,  that  it  is  the  spot  of 
all  the  world  where  the  greatest  number  of  discoveries 
have  been  made.  The  name  of  that  village  will  never 
perish:  science  will  transmit  it  religiously  to  our 
latest  posterity." 


CHAPTEK  XII 

DOUBLE  STAKS  AND  NEBULAE 

WITH  the  intuition  of  genius,  Herschel,  at  an  early 
period  in  his  career,  leaped  to  the  conclusion  that,  as 
a  planet  revolves  round  the  sun,  so,  in  the  regions  of 
space,  stars  may  revolve  round  stars,  or  sun  round  sun. 
It  was  a  magnificent  idea,  apparently  beyond  proof, 
and  would  be  reckoned  among  the  useless  things  of 
science.  "  We  have  already  shown,"  he  wrote  in  1803, 
"the  possibility  that  two  stars,  whatever  be  their 
relative  magnitudes,  may  revolve,  either  in  circles  or 
ellipses,  round  their  common  centre  of  gravity;  and 
that,  among  the  multitude  of  the  stars  of  the  heavens, 
there  should  be  many  sufficiently  near  each  other  to 
occasion  this  mutual  revolution,  must  also  appear 
highly  probable."  A  sun  of  enormous  size  and  bright- 
ness revolving  round  another  sun  as  big  or  as  bright, 
but  it  may  be  of  a  different  colour,  might  be  and  really 
was  regarded  as  the  dream  of  a  poet,  imagining  things 
that  mathematics,  with  inexorable  logic,  gave  no  coun- 
tenance to.  But  imagination  sometimes  realises  truth 
long  before  the  facts  of  science  make  it  known.  It 
was  so  here.  "  I  shall  therefore  now  proceed  to  give  an 
account  of  a  series  of  observations  on  double  stars,  com- 
prehending a  period  of  about  twenty-five  years,  which, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken,  will  go  to  prove  that  many  of 

218 


DOUBLE  STARS  219 

them  are  not  merely  double  in  appearance,  but  must  be 
allowed  to  be  real  binary  combinations  of  two  stars,  inti- 
mately held  together  by  the  bond  of  mutual  attraction." 

Herschel's  first  catalogue  of  double  stars  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Royal  Society  in  a  memoir  of  fifty  pages 
on  January  10,  1782.  It  was  a  work  of  enormous 
labour  to  be  undertaken  and  carried  out  by  a  hard- 
working musician  during  the  nights,  that  followed 
days  of  absorbing  business.  Of  the  number  269,  con- 
tained in  this  catalogue,  227  had  not  been  noted  by  any 
astronomer  before  him.  It  was  not  only  a  new  field 
of  research  he  may  be  considered  to  have  opened  up. 
He  had  also  two  distinct  ends  in  view,  which  may  be 
said  to  have  been  equally  novel.  One  of  them  was, 
by  means  of  these  double  or  triple  systems,  to  discover 
the  distances  of  the  stars  from  our  sun,  and  the  other 
to  ascertain  whether  "  small  stars  revolved  round  large 
ones."  He  failed  in  the  former,  he  was  successful  in 
the  latter.  The  arithmetic  of  the  one  was  too  hard  for 
him ;  the  poetry  of  the  other  was  reduced  to  the 
commonplace  of  fact,  after  a  waiting  period  of  twenty- 
five  years. 

Everyone  knows  that  if  a  tree  and  a  house  be 
in  the  same  line  of  sight  from  a  distant  spectator, 
the  eye  of  the  spectator  may  imagine  the  tree  to 
be  at  the  same  distance  as  the  house,  but  cannot 
measure  the  space  between  them.  We  cannot  see 
distance;  it  is  an  acquirement  gained  by  experience 
from  the  sense  of  touch,  and  gained  so  insensibly  that 
we  think  we  see  distance  in  front  of  us,  height  or 
depth,  it  may  be,  while,  in  fact,  we  only  see  length  and 
breadth.  An  observer,  seeing  two  stars  so  close  that, 
to  the  naked  eye,  they  seem  only  one,  may  consider 


220         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

them  both  at  the  same  distance.  A  little  reflection, 
however,  soon  convinces  him  that  the  one  star,  though 
shining  at  a  vast  distance  from  the  other,  may  be  so 
placed  in  a  line  drawn  from  our  eye  to  the  latter  as 
to  be  nearly  or  altogether  eclipsed  by  it.  Sometimes 
these  stars  are  so  close  that  the  two  pass  for  one,  till 
an  improvement  in  the  telescope  separates  the  com- 
panions, and  shows  them  to  be  distinct.  Herschel  had 
this  experience,  and  one  of  the  most  singular  instances 
of  it  is  not  yet  thirty  years  old.  The  dog-star  Sirius 
is  among  the  best  known  stars  in  our  southern  skies. 
Its  brightness  is  forty-  to  sixty-fold  that  of  the  sun, 
its  distance  is  such  that  a  flash  of  light  from  it 
takes  perhaps  ten  years  to  reach  our  eyes,  and  its 
weight  exceeds  that  of  two  of  our  suns.  This  vast  and 
brilliant  sun  was  found  to  indulge  in  vagaries  which 
were,  and  some  of  which  still  are,  the  puzzle  of 
astronomers.  They  could  not  see,  and  therefore  did 
not  know.  But  although  they  could  not  see,  they 
could  imagine  what  the  unseen  cause  of  these  vagaries 
was :  for  "  the  eyes  of  the  mind  can  supply  the  want  of 
the  most  powerful  telescopes,  and  lead  to  astronomical 
discoveries  of  the  highest  importance." l  Another  star 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Sirius,  the  mathematicians 
said,  is  moving  round  him.  They  calculated  its  orbit, 
they  told  observers  where  to  apprehend  the  disturber, 
but  in  vain.  At  last  the  eighteen-inch  object-glass, 
made  for  the  Chicago  Observatory  in  the  United  States, 
was  turned  on  Sirius  by  way  of  trial.  Great  was  the 
surprise  of  the  manufacturers  when  they  saw  that  the 
mighty  sun  had  a  fainter  but  a  very  bulky  companion 
in  his  company,  and  was  seen  in  the  direction  pre- 

1  Arago,  Biographies,  etc.,  p.  224. 


ORBITS  OF  DOUBLE  STARS          221 

dieted  by  mathematicians.  It  is  twice  as  heavy  as  our 
sun,  but  does  not  give  a  fiftieth  part  of  the  light. 
Stars  then  may  be  double,  or  treble,  or  even  quadruple 
by  nature,  or  by  the  accident  of  position. 

Comparing  his  own  observations  and  such  others  as 
he  could  procure,  Herschel  calculated  that  the  one  star 
moved  round  the  other,  or  that  both  moved  round  their 
common  centre  of  gravity  in  the  following  double 
stars : — 

Castor  in  about  342  years  2  months. 
y  Leonis  in  about  1200  years, 
e  Bootis  in  not  less  than  1681  years. 
d  Serpentis  in  about  375  years. 
y  Virginis  in  about  708  years.1 

Another  double  star  that  he  carefully  examined  was 
Zeta  Herculis.  It  presented  him  with  a  sight  "  which 
is  new  in  astronomy ;  it  is,  the  occultation  of  one  star 
by  another."  For  twenty-one  years  he  continued  to 
keep  a  watch  on  the  star.  After  twenty  years  had 
passed  he  could  no  longer  perceive  the  smaller  of  the 
two  companions.  The  following  year  he  found  "the 
apparent  disk  a  little  distorted;  but  there  could  not 
be  more  than  about  f  of  the  apparent  diameter  of 
the  small  star  wanting  to  a  complete  occultation." 
But  the  observations  made  were  not  sufficient  to 
determine  the  nature  of  the  motion  that  produced 
these  effects.  The  long  period  of  1681  years  set  down 
against  s  Bootis,  Herschel  himself  points  out  as  subject 
to  uncertainties,  which  it  will  take  long  to  clear  up. 

1  "One  thing  very  remarkable  I  must  tell  you,  y  Virginis  is  now  a 
single  star  in  both  the  twenty-foot,  and  the  seven-foot  equatorial  !  !  ! " 
(Sir  John  Herschel,  March  8,  1836).  He  means  that  one  of  the  two 
suns  had  eclipsed  the  other. 


222         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

A  slight  mistake  in  exceedingly  small  measurements 
may  cause  serious  errors  in  the  calculated  times  of 
revolution. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  King's  equerry 
whom  Miss  Burney,  in  her  gossip  from  Windsor  Castle, 
calls  Colonel  Welbred,  foretold  that  time  would  do 
justice  to  Herschel,  and  turn  the  laugh  at  him  against 
the  laughers.  And  time  has  done  him  justice  with  a 
most  ungrudging  hand.  Eight  years  after  his  death, 
it  was  asked  by  a  leader  of  modern  enlightenment, 
"  What  length  of  time  must  the  cosmologist  suppose 
necessary  to  reduce  a  gaseous  nebula  into  a  permanent 
planetary  system  ?  Experience  shows  pretty  clearly 
the  inutility  of  such  speculations."  ...  Of  the  moon's 
"origin  and  internal  structure  we  neither  know,  nor 
ever  can  know,  anything  whatever.  And  if  such  is 
the  result  of  our  researches  respecting  a  body  placed 
almost  in  our  immediate  vicinity,  there  is  little  reason 
to  hope  that  we  shall  be  more  successful  with  regard 
to  those  whose  distances  are  so  great  that  the  most 
powerful  telescopes  are  required  to  render  them  even 
visible." 1  This  was  written  in  1830 ;  it  was  ill-natured 
disparagement  of  a  noble  attempt  to  solve  the  mysteries 
of  the  universe,  and  to  give  practical  proof  of  man's 
kinship  with  God;  it  was  wholly  unscientific.  In 
1842  another  greatly-extolled  writer  declared  that  in 
that  region  of  inquiry  there  did  not  exist  any  dis- 
covered, or  even,  without  doubt  discoverable  phe- 
nomenon.2 The  equerries  of  Windsor  might  be  laughed 
at  and  forgiven ;  the  scepticism  that  prompted  men  of 
science  to  bid  their  brethren  fold  their  hands  and  do 
nothing,  was  an  unpardonable  sin  against  truth.  It 

1  Edin.  Rev.  li.  101.  2  Comte,  Nineteenth  Century  (1897),  908. 


HERSCHEL'S  CLAIMS  223 

was  of  the  same  nature  as  the  scientific  proof  that 
steamboats  could  not  cross  the  Atlantic,  and  was 
belied,  as  the  other  was,  by  facts. 

To  Herschel  then  belongs  the  credit  not  merely  of 
having  suspected  the  revolution  of  sun  round  sun  in 
the  far  distant  realms  of  space,  but  also  of  actually 
detecting  the  fact  that  this  was  going  on  among  the 
stars.  He  has  the  credit  also  of  having,  with  im- 
perfect appliances,  measured  the  angles  which  enabled 
him  to  calculate  the  times  of  revolution  of  these 
systems  of  suns.  It  was  a  beginning,  a  wonderful 
beginning  of  a  new  departure  in  man's  warfare  with 
ignorance,  and  with  the  bonds  that  tie  him  down  to 
the  earth.  He  did  not  know,  probably  he  was  so 
wrapt  up  in  his  own  conceptions  of  the  usefulness  of 
the  telescope,  that  he  could  not  imagine  a  more  potent 
revealer  of  the  secrets  of  the  universe  than  a  gigantic 
mirror  at  the  bottom  of  a  gigantic  tube,  or  an  immense 
eye  at  the  object  end  of  a  telescope.  A  glass  prism 
has  done  what  the  telescope  could  not  do,  revealed 
double  stars  where  they  were  not  known  to  exist, 
shown  their  rates  of  motion  to  or  from  us,  and  where 
an  unseen  ball  is  a  companion  to  a  living  and  a  lighted 
sun,  told  us  what  they  are  made  of,  and  enabled  us 
to  weigh  them  as  if  they  were  in  the  scales  of  a 
balance.  To  be  able  to  do  this,  or  apprehend  the  way 
it  has  been  done,  or  even  to  know  the  fact,  lifts  human 
nature  to  a  loftier  height  than  it  ever  attained  in  the 
past,  and  the  pioneer  in  this  elevation  of  mankind  was 
originally  a  bandsman  in  the  Hanoverian  Guards,  a 
musician  of  Bath.  Nor  should  it  be  forgotten  that 
the  improvement  of  the  telescope,  with  which  these 
revelations  of  the  secret  things  of  the  starry  heavens 


224         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

are  closely  connected,  was  largely  his  work.  He 
laboured  indefatigably  himself;  he  invited,  he  also 
aroused  into  honourable  emulation,  the  rivalry  of 
others  to  equal  or  surpass  his  achievements. 

What  Herschel  could  only  suspect  or  assert,  the 
glass  prism  has  proved.  These  mighty  suns,  "in 
number  numberless,"  are  made  of  the  same  materials 
as  our  earth  and  our  sun — iron,  magnesium,  hydrogen, 
sodium,  etc.  The  vast  universe  is  governed  by  the 
same  laws,  and  made  of  the  same  matter.  It  is,  so 
to  speak,  the  work  of  one  and  the  same  building 
hand.  To  have  risen  to  this  simple  truth  by  explor- 
ing the  suns  and  systems  of  the  universe  is  a  reward 
worth  all  the  time  and  trouble  spent  in  working  it 
out.  Mankind,  in  this  respect  alone,  stands  on  a 
loftier  platform  now  than  half  a  century  ago.  One- 
ness of  plan,  manifested  in  this  widespread  oneness 
of  working,  implies  oneness  of  the  worker.  A  lofty 
moral  truth  has  resulted  from  the  labours  and  specula- 
tions of  which  leaders  of  scientific  truth  in  Europe 
formerly  saw  only  the  inutility.  The  Maker,  Governor, 
and  Upholder  of  all  these  worlds  and  universes  is  one 
and  the  same.  Who  He  is,  what  is  His  central  seat 
of  power  no  telescope,  no  glass  prism  can  reveal. 
Amid  the  wonders  of  infinite  space  and  time,  our 
standards  of  measurement  and  knowledge  may  be 
said  to  be  our  five  senses,  and  if  one  of  these,  sight, 
were  taken  from  us,  our  sphere  of  knowledge  would 
be  immeasurably  reduced  in  extent.  On  the  other 
hand,  an  addition  to  the  senses  we  have,  a  quickening 
of  the  inner  light,  might  reveal  this  Builder  of  worlds, 
His  palace,  His  living  armies,  with  a  distinctness,  a 
fulness  hitherto  unknown.  Herschel  evidently  thought 


GAMMA  VIRGINIS  225 

this  when  he  stood  in  wondering  awe  before  the  hole 
in  the  heavens. 

That  Herschel  fell  into  mistakes  regarding  double 
stars  cannot  and  need  not  be  denied.  It  was  unavoid- 
able that  the  first  traveller  in  an  unexplored  region, 
billions  of  miles  distant  from  our  earth,  should  err  in 
tracing  paths,  measuring  time,  and  estimating  dis- 
tances. He  failed  in  his  calculations  with  y  Virginis, 
which  he  represented  as  two  companions  that  revolved 
round  a  common  centre  in  708  years.  His  son  by  a 
careful  discussion  of  the  observations  made  since  1718 
showed  that  the  time  of  revolution  was  not  708  years 
but  513.  It  was  also  predicted  that  the  smaller  of  the 
two  companions  would  reach  the  point  where  it  is 
nearest  the  larger  in  the  beginning  of  1834.  Even 
these  revised  calculations  proved  to  be  incorrect,  for 
it  did  not  reach  that  point  till  two  years  later. 
Observations  of  the  star  were  then  renewed  for 
several  years;  new  calculations  were  made,  and  the 
time  of  revolution  of  the  lesser  companion  round  the 
greater  was  found  to  be  182  years.  But  it  came  out 
that  the  orbit  of  1834,  with  the  time  513  years,  was 
nearly  the  same,  in  part  of  its  course,  as  the  true  orbit, 
and  was  "  a  curious  example,  and  by  no  means  the  first 
in  the  history  of  the  progress  of  discovery,  where  of 
two  possible  courses,  each  at  the  moment  equally 
plausible,  the  wrong  has  been  chosen."1 

But  Herschel's  study  of  the  fixed  stars  and  of  the 
unity  of  plan  in  nature  went  farther  than  we  have 
yet  traced.  A  paper  read  by  him  in  1814  contains 
the  following  facts,  that  might  almost  have  been  pro- 
phecies of  wonders  in  store  for  men — "  Stars  although 

1  Edin.  Xev.t  1848,  132-33. 
15 


226         HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

surrounded  by  a  luminous  atmosphere,  may  be  looked 
upon  as  so  many  opaque,  habitable,  planetary  globes ; 
differing,  from  what  we  know  of  our  own  planets, 
only  in  their  size,  and  by  their  intrinsically  luminous 
appearance.  They  also,  like  the  planets,  shine  with 
differently  coloured  light.  That  of  Arcturus  and 
Aldebaran,  for  instance,  is  as  different  from  the  light 
of  Sirius  and  Capella,  as  that  of  Mars  and  Saturn  is 
from  the  light  of  Venus  and  Jupiter.  A  still  greater 
variety  of  coloured  star-light  has  already  been  shewn 
to  exist  in  many  double  stars,  such  as  y  Andromedse, 
(3  Cygni,  and  many  more.  In  my  sweeps  are  also 
recorded  the  places  of  9  deep  garnet,  5  bright  garnet, 
and  10  red  coloured  stars,  of  various  small  magnitudes 
from  the  7th  to  the  12th. 

"  By  some  experiments  on  the  light  of  a  few  of  the 
stars  of  the  1st  magnitude,  made  in  1798,  by  a  prism 
applied  to  the  eye-glasses  of  my  reflectors,  adjustable 
to  any  angle,  and  to  any  direction,  I  had  the  following 
analyses : 

"  The  light  of  Sirius  consists  of  red,  orange,  yellow, 
green,  blue,  purple,  and  violet. 

"  a  Orionis  contains  the  same  colours,  but  the  red  is 
more  intense,  and  the  orange  and  yellow  are  less 
copious  in  proportion  than  they  are  in  Sirius. 

"  Procyon  contains  all  the  colours,  but  proportionally 
more  blue  and  purple  than  Sirius. 

"Arcturus  contains  more  red  and  orange  and  less 
yellow  in  proportion  than  Sirius. 

"Aldebaran  contains  much  orange,  and  very  little 
yellow. 

" «  Lyrse  contains  much  yellow,  green,  blue,  and 
purple." 


SPECTRA  AND  GROWTH  OF  STARS  227 

The  foundation  of  what  may  be  called  a  new  science 
was  thus  laid  by  Herschel  more  than  half  a  century 
before  anything  was  built  on  it. 

In  that  paper  also  he  embodied  curious  speculations 
on  the  growth  of  stars :  "  If  the  nebulosity  should  sub- 
side into  the  star,  as  seems  to  be  indicated  by  the 
assumed  form  of  the  fan-shaped  nebulae,  the  star 
would  receive  an  increase  of  matter  proportional  to 
the  magnitude  and  density  of  the  nebulosity  in  contact 
with  it." 

Another  of  the  subjects  specially  studied  by  Herschel 
from  an  early  period  in  his  career  was  the  white  clouds 
or  nebulae  seen,  even  with  the  naked  eye,  in  various 
places  among  the  stars.  The  telescopes  of  astronomers 
had  not  done  much  to  add  to  their  number  or  reveal 
their  peculiar  forms  till  he  took  the  matter  in  hand. 
In  1786  he  laid  before  the  Royal  Society  a  "  catalogue 
of  a  thousand  nebulas  and  clusters  of  stars."  Three 
years  after,  he  presented  the  Society  with  a  "  catalogue 
of  a  second  thousand  new  nebulae  and  clusters  of  stars"; 
and  in  1802  he  added  "a  catalogue  of  500  new 
nebulae  and  clusters  of  stars."  A  field  of  discovery  so 
rich  he  had  been  left  to  reap  alone,  except  in  the  assist- 
ance, the  invaluable  assistance,  which  he  received  from 
his  devoted  sister  Caroline.  He  looked  upon  star- 
clusters  and  nebulae  as  building  stones  used  by  the 
Creator  in  constructing  the  universe;  to  catalogue, 
to  watch,  and  to  measure  these  building  stones  was  a 
long  step  taken  in  ascertaining  the  plan  on  which  the 
Almighty  Architect  proceeded.  Herschel  was  laughed 
at,  most  unfairly  laughed  at,  as  a  "  lively  and  amusing  " 
dreamer ;  science  has  proved  that  he  was  a  noble  pioneer 
of  modern  discoveries,  which  inspire  mankind  with  awe. 


228         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  work  of  observing,  measuring,  and  recording  these 
worlds  of  wonder,  and  sometimes  of  surpassing  beauty 
even  when  seen  in  the  magic  mirror  of  a  reflector,  was 
enormous :  but  this  indefatigable  worker,  with  his  like- 
minded  sister-helper,  seemed  never  to  weary  in  his 
marvellous  efforts  to  lift  the  curtain  that  hid  Creation's 
glories  from  man.  What  these  glories  seemed  (to  him) 
to  mean  was  unfolded  in  1811  in  a  memoir,  which 
anticipated  by  many  years  the  doctrine  of  evolution 
taught  by  Darwin,  and  which  showed  the  progress, 
slow  it  might  be,  "  for,  in  this  case,  millions  of  years 
are  perhaps  but  moments,"  but  sure,  of  a  vast  body 
of  gas  condensing  into  a  sun  or  suns  with  a  train  of 
planets  around.1 

When  Herschel  entered  upon  this  inquiry  he  believed 
that  these  nebulae,  or  whitish  clouds  or  milky  ways  are 
clusters  of  stars,  too  far  off  to  be  resolved  into  separate 
points  of  light,  but  blended  so  together  as  to  assume 
the  appearance  of  a  little  cloud  in  the  depths  of  space. 
"  Longer  experience  and  a  better  acquaintance "  with 
them  induced  him  to  change  his  mind.  Vast  masses 
of  gas,  in  which  a  few  stars  were  sometimes  seen,  or 
through  which  they  shone  from  a  greater  distance, 
were  believed  by  him  to  exist  in  space,  besides  those 
which  an  increase  of  telescopic  power  could  resolve, 
as  the  phrase  was,  into  stars.2  It  was  the  idea  of  a 
far-seeing  mind,  feeling  its  way  to  truth,  and,  in  our 

1  "  The  reason  for  not  having  a  more  circumstantial  account  of  such 
a  number  of  objects,  is  that  they  crowded  upon  me  at  the  time  of 
sweeping  in  such  quick  succession  that  of  sixty-one  I  could  but  just 
secure  the  place  in  the  heavens,  and  of  the  remaining  three  hundred 
and  sixty-three,   I  had  only  time  to  add   the  relative   size"  (Phil. 
Trans,  for  1811,  p.  290). 

2  Phil.  Trans,  for  1811,  p.  270. 


GASEOUS  NATURE  OF  NEBULA     229 

own  day,  it  has  been  proved  true.  The  prism  has 
shown  that  these  inconceivably  vast  masses  of  gas 
exist.  Justice  to  Herschel  requires  that  his  rights 
to  the  first  announcement  of  this  new  and  startling 
view  of  the  gradual  formation  of  worlds  should  not  be 
overlooked,  as  is  sometimes  done.1  "  The  profound 
awe,"  says  the  discoverer  of  the  gaseous  nature  of  some 
nebulae,  "  which  I  felt  on  looking  for  the  first  time  at 
that  which  no  eye  of  man  had  seen,  and  which  even 
the  scientific  imagination  could  not  foreshow,"  is  the 
well  expressed  wonder  of  true  science,  when  it  pene- 
trates into  the  workshops  of  the  Almighty,  but  Her- 
schel's  imagination  had  done  more  in  1811  than 
"  foreshow  "  the  discovery  made  fully  by  Sir  William 
Huggins  in  1864.  The  imagination  of  William  Herschel 
penetrated  into  this  secret  house  of  wonders,  and  gave 
expression  to  what  was  believed  to  be  going  on  in 
eternal  ages  and  through  infinite  space. 

There  are  two  magnificent  nebulae  to  which  astro- 
nomers have  specially  turned  their  telescopes,  the  one  in 
Orion  and  the  other  in  Andromeda.  Writing  in  1811, 
after  thirty-seven  years'  study  of  these  wonderfully 
mysterious  clouds,  Herschel  thus  speaks  of  "  the  great 
nebula  in  the  constellation  of  Orion  discovered  by 
Huyghens.  This  highly  interesting  object  engaged 

1  "Sir  William  Herschel  supposed  that  they  [nebulae]  were  all  really 
star-clusters,  but  so  enormously  remote  that  even  the  most  powerful 
telescopes  could  not  render  visible  the  stars  composing  them" 
(Wallace,  The  Wonderful  Century,  p.  44).  This  is  a  singular  statement 
to  come  from  the  gifted  author  or  co-author  of  the  Darwinian  theory. 
The  reduction  of  the  immensely  vast  to  the  comparatively  small  was 
Herschel's  view  of  development  or  evolution  in  the  realms  of  space  ;  the 
growth  of  organic  life  from  the  simple  cell  to  the  living  forms  of  earth 
— the  inverse  process — is  the  idea  or  hypothesis  of  natural  science 
to-day.  See  Phil.  Trans.,  1791,  pp.  73-83. 


230         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

my  attention  already  in  the  beginning  of  the  year 
1774,  when  viewing  it  with  a  Newtonian  reflector  I 
made  a  drawing  of  it,  to  which  I  shall  have  occasion 
hereafter  to  refer :  and  having  from  time  to  time 
reviewed  it  with  my  large  instruments,  it  may  easily 
be  supposed  that  it  was  the  very  first  object  to  which, 
in  February  1787,  I  directed  my  40-feet  telescope. 
The  superior  light  of  this  instrument  shewed  it  of  such 
a  magnitude  and  brilliancy  that,  judging  from  these 
circumstances,  we  can  hardly  have  a  doubt  of  its  being 
the  nearest  of  all  the  nebulae  in  the  heavens,  and  as 
such  will  afford  us  many  valuable  informations.  I 
shall  however  now  only  notice  that  I  have  placed  it  in 
the  present  order  because  it  connects  in  one  object  the 
brightest  and  faintest  of  all  nebulosities,  and  thereby 
enables  us  to  draw  several  conclusions  from  its  various 
appearance."1  By  nebulosity  or  nebulous  matter  he 
meant  "  that  substance  or  rather  those  substances 
which  give  out  light,  whatsoever  may  be  their  nature, 
or  of  whatever  different  powers  they  may  be  pos- 
sessed." l  From  a  laborious  examination  of  these  vast 
regions  of  visible  nebulous  matter,  Herschel  found 
reason  to  conclude  that  the  power  of  gravitation  was 
condensing  the  matter  towards  one  or  more  centres, 
which  shone  with  greater  brilliance  than  the  rest  of 
the  mass.  A  motion  of  rotation  round  an  axis  would 
also  probably  result  from  innumerable  particles  press- 
ing towards  a  centre,  and  the  matter  which  did  not 
condense  into  a  nucleus — perhaps  a  star  or  sun — 

1  Phil.  Trans,  for  1811,  pp.  278,  279,  277,  313.  "The  nature  of 
diffused  nebulosity  is  such  that  we  often  see  it  joined  to  real  nebuke." 
He  means  apparently  gas  sometimes  very  rare  joined  to  matter  con- 
densed or  condensing  into  stars. 


CONSOLIDATION  OF  NEBULA       231 

would  "remain  expanded  about  the  nucleus  in  the 
shape  of  a  very  extended  atmosphere ;  or  it  may  be  of 
an  elastic  nature,  and  be  kept  from  uniting  with  the 
nucleus,  as  their  elasticity  causes  the  atmospheres  of 
the  planets  to  be  expanded  about  them.  In  this  case 
we  have  another  property  of  the  nebulous  substance  to 
add  to  the  former  qualities  of  its  matter." 

No  one  can  read  even  an  outline  of  these  interesting 
speculations  by  an  adventurer  into  the  workshops  of 
creation,  without  feeling  awed  by  the  boldness  and 
sublimity  of  his  views,  as  well  as  desirous  of  knowing 
what  else  he  saw  in  his  magic  mirror,  or  thought  he 
saw,  of  the  machinery  in  motion.  What  he  has  told 
us  of  a  mighty  volume  of  nebulous  matter  is  that  "  a 
nucleus,  to  which  these  nebulae  seem  to  approach,  is  an 
indication  of  consolidation,"  and  that  the  faintness 
of  the  light  in  the  parts  outside  the  nucleus  arises  from 
"  a  gradual  diminution  of  the  length  and  density  of  the 
nebulous  matter,  occasioned  by  its  gravitation  towards 
the  nucleus  into  which  it  probably  subsides."1  He 
believes  that  "  a  pretty  bright  round  nebula  about  a 
quarter  or  one  minute  in  diameter,  and  looking  no 
bigger  than  a  pea,  may  have  shrunk  into  itself  till  it  is 
now  nineteen  hundred  times  more  dense  than  at  first, 
— a  proportion  of  density  more  than  double  that  of 
water  to  air."1  In  another  case  he  calculates  that 
"the  condensation  may  have  reduced  the  nebulous 
matter  to  less  than  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-two 
thousandth  part  of  its  former  bulk." x  To  understand 
what  these  figures  mean,  suppose  a  sphere  whose 
radius  is  nearly  three  thousand  millions  of  miles,  or  as 
far  as  from  the  sun  to  our  outermost  known  planet, 
1  Phil.  Trans.,  1811,  pp.  308,  310,  311,  315,  316,  318. 


232         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Neptune,  to  be  filled  with  gas,  luminous  or  not.  It 
would  not  occupy  more  than  a  fortieth  part  of  the 
space  in  the  heavens  occupied  by  the  great  nebula  in 
Orion,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  our  best  telescopes  reveal 
the  whole  of  that  nebula's  extent  in  any  direction.  It 
is  within  such  vast  spaces  that  Herschel  imagined  this 
world-making  process  to  be  going  on.  Man's  imagina- 
tion quails  in  his  attempt  to  grasp  the  space  required 
for  such  a  workshop,  the  tools  employed,  or  the  time 
taken  to  condense  "  nebulous  matter "  into  dazzling 
suns  or  dark  companions. 

We  are  so  much  accustomed  to  feast  our  eyes  on 
drawings  of  a  few  magnificent  and  singularly  shaped 
nebulae,  that  thought  is  apt  to  overlook  the  vast 
numbers  of  them  scattered  over  the  heavens  in  all 
stages  of  size  or  progress.  Herschel  did  not  fall  into 
this  mistake.  His  object  was  higher  than  to  satisfy 
curiosity  or  to  excite  wonder.  He  had  the  feeling  that 
there  was  a  process  going  on,  of  which  he  believed  he 
could  trace  not  a  few  of  the  stages.  The  smallest  and 
the  least  wonderful  of  the  nebulae  might  thus  prove  to 
be  as  important  in  tracing  out  this  progress,  as  the 
most  awe-inspiring.  Nor  did  he  look  upon  all  of  them 
as  resolvable  into  stars  or  masses  of  shining  matter, 
more  or  less  rare.  He  believed  that  some  of  them 
were  not  luminous,  but  dark ;  but  he  made  no  attempt 
to  explain,  as  may  be  at  least  attempted  to-day,  how  a 
vast  mass  of  invisible  gas  may  become  lighted  up,  and 
send  its  brightness  off  on  a  journey  of  ten  or  twenty  or 
fifty  years,  to  publish  to  us  the  changes  that,  in  process 
of  ages,  had  taken  place  in  its  nature.  It  was  the  dis- 
covery of  world-making  he  was  aiming  at  in  these  long 
and  laborious,  but  not  wearisome  researches.  Others 


STAR-ISLANDS  OR  WORLD-SYSTEMS  233 

have  followed  in  his  footsteps  with  a  better  equipment 
of  instruments,  if  not  with  a  richer  endowment  of 
insight  or  genius.  Others  still  have  looked  upon  his 
lifelong  quest  as  an  attempt  to  reach  the  foot  of  the 
rainbow  ladder,  or  to  master  the  secret  of  the  philo- 
sopher's stone.  His  papers  remain  a  wonderful  monu- 
ment of  ingenious  research  and  marvellous  discovery, 
of  lofty  imaginings  and  reasoned  conclusions. 

These  nebulae  and  clusters  of  stars  Herschel  called 
milky  ways,  different  from  the  great  Milky  Way,  in 
which  our  solar  system  is  imbedded.  He  held  at  first 
that  they  are  in  no  respect  connected  with  our  milky 
way,  but  are  star-islands  or  world-systems,  perhaps 
only  in  process  of  formation,  at  immense  distances  from 
our  sun,  outlying  provinces  of  creation,  as  it  were,  in 
the  vast  ocean  of  ether,  or  constructions  only  begun  in 
the  realms  of  space.  He  is  supposed  to  have  fallen 
from  this  opinion  in  his  later  years,  and  to  have 
imagined  that  all  these  milky  ways  and  star-clusters 
were  connected  with  ours.  His  latest  papers  give  no 
indication  of  this  change  of  view.  He  appears  indeed 
only  to  have  changed  his  view  in  so  far  as  to  have 
regarded  our  milky  way  as  the  greatest  of  all  the 
milky  ways,  visible  in  our  telescopes  :  but  on  this  point 
he  was  scarcely  justified  in  speaking,  as  the  distance  of 
the  nearest  nebula  not  only  was  and  continues  to  be 
unknown,  but  the  means  of  determining  the  distances 
of  these  white  clouds  have  not  yet  been  discovered.  It 
is  thought  that  the  great  nebula  in  Orion,  if  not  the 
nearest  to  us,  is  among  the  nearest.  Herschel  main- 
tained this.  He  had  some  grounds  also  for  believing 
that  changes  had  taken  place  in  the  positions  of  the 
nebulous  matter  during  the  thirty-seven  years  he 


234         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

had  been  watching,  and  still  greater  changes  since 
Huyghens,  a  century  and  a  half  earlier,  gave  a  picture 
of  it  in  his  Sy  sterna  Saturnium.  "  The  various  appear- 
ances of  this  nebula,"  Herschel  writes,  "  are  so  instruct- 
ive that  I  shall  apply  them  to  the  subject  of  the 
partial  opacity  of  the  nebulous  matter.  .  .  .  For  when 
I  formerly  saw  three  fictitious  nebulous  stars,  it  will 
not  be  contended  that  there  were  three  small  shining 
nebulosities,  just  in  the  three  lines,  in  which  I  saw 
them,  of  which  two  are  now  gone,  and  only  one  remain- 
ing. As  well  might  we  ascribe  the  light  surrounding  a 
star,  which  is  seen  through  a  mist,  to  a  quality  of 
shining  belonging  to  that  particular  part  of  the  mist, 
which  by  chance  happened  to  be  situated  where  the 
star  is  seen.  If  then  the  former  nebulosity  of  the  two 
stars  which  have  ceased  to  be  nebulous  can  only  be 
ascribed  to  an  effect  of  the  transit  or  penetration 
through  nebulous  matter  which  deflected  and  scattered 
it,  we  have  now  a  direct  proof  that  this  matter  can 
exist  in  a  state  of  opacity,  and  may  possibly  be  diffused 
in  many  parts  of  the  heavens  without  our  being  able  to 
perceive  it." 

It  would  be  unjust  to  Herschel  to  pass  over  the 
condemnation  of  his  views,  pronounced  by  Sir  David 
Brewster  in  his  Life  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton.  Without 
mentioning  the  name  of  William  Herschel,  or  of  La 
Place,  who  advocated  the  same  views,  Sir  David  writes 
as  one  who  felt  sure  that  Newton,  for  mathematical 
reasons  alone,  would  have  taken  a  side  against  this 
Nebular  Hypothesis.1  In  the  last  of  the  famous  four 
letters  written  by  Sir  Isaac  to  Dr.  Bentley,  the  great 
classical  scholar  and  the  author  of  Phalaris,  he  enters 

1  Life  of  Newton,  ii.  130. 


THE  NEBULAR  HYPOTHESIS        235 

into  a  mathematical  criticism  of  the  opinion  of  Plato 
"  that  the  motion  of  the  planets  is  such  as  if  they  had 
all  been  created  by  God  in  some  region  very  remote 
from  our  system,  and  let  fall  from  thence  towards  the 
sun,  their  falling  motion  being  turned  aside  into  a 
transverse  one  whenever  they  arrived  at  their  several 
orbits."  This,  of  course,  is  wholly  unlike  Herschel's 
theory,  or  that  of  Laplace.  But  of  these  letters  Sir 
David  says:  "In  the  present  day  they  possess  a 
peculiar  interest.  They  show  that  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis,  the  dull  and  dangerous  heresy  of  the  age, 
is  incompatible  with  the  established  laws  of  the 
material  universe,  and  that  an  omnipotent  arm  was 
required  to  give  the  planets  their  position  and 
motions  in  space,  and  a  presiding  intelligence  to 
assign  to  them  the  different  functions  they  had  to 
perform." 

These  views  of  Sir  David  Brewster,  eminent  man  of 
science  though  he  was  and  sincere  believer  in  an 
almighty  arm  ruling  all  the  motions  of  material  bodies, 
do  not  seem  justified  by  facts.  Even  his  great  name 
is  not  weighty  enough  to  counterbalance  that  of 
Laplace,  when  the  former  affirms  and  the  latter  denies 
that  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  "  is  incompatible  with  the 
established  laws  of  the  material  universe."  Newton's 
speculations  on  Plato's  dream  of  the  origin  of  planets 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  hypothesis  in  question.  It 
may  be  "  a  dull  and  dangerous  heresy,"  as  Sir  David 
believed,  "  but  it  denies  neither  an  almighty  arm  nor  a 
presiding  mind."  Recent  discoveries  have  given  more 
probability  to  the  theory — if  we  are  entitled  to  use  that 
name:  and  Herschel's  inductions  from  observed  and 
classified  facts  have  gone  far  to  prove  that  Laplace's 


236          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

imaginings  rest    on   a   more    solid    foundation    than 
theories,  at  their  birth,  can  usually  boast  of. 

In  pursuit  of  his  favourite  study — the  plan  of  the 
Creator  in  constructing  the  Temple  of  the  Heavens — 
Herschel,  with  fuller  knowledge,  and  after  many  years 
of  labour,  departed  from  Cassini's  simple  classification 
of  nebulae,  and  adopted  another  in  closer  agreement 
with  facts.  It  was  as  follows  : — 

Class     I.  Bright  nebulae   ....     288  in  all. 

„      II.  Faint  nebulae     .         .         .         .     909  „    „ 

„     III.  Very  faint  nebuloe      .         .         .     984  „    „ 

„  IV.  Planetary  nebulae  or  stars  with 
burs,  with  milky  chevelure, 
with  short  rays,  remarkable 
shapes,  etc 79  „  „ 

„       V.  Very  large  nebubs     .         .         .       52  „    „ 

„  VI.  Very  compressed  and  rich  clus- 
ters of  stars  .  .  .  42  „  „ 

„  VII.  Pretty  much  compressed  clusters      67  „    „ 

,,VIII.  Coarsely  scattered  clusters  of 

stars 88  „  „ 

As  he  entered  these  nebulae  on  a  star  map,  it  was 
evident  to  the  eye  that  the  parts  of  the  heavens  at  a 
distance  from  the  Milky  Way  are  most  abundant  in 
white  clouds.  Of  a  connection  between  them  and  the 
Milky  Way  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been  certain. 
We  must  leave  it  as  he  left  it — in  uncertainty  and 
doubt.  Future  ages  may  determine  whether  the  whole 
material  universe,  designed  by  one  mind,  governed  by 
the  same  laws,  built  of  the  same  materials,  and  upheld 
for  purposes  in  which  the  mighty  littleness  of  man 
seems  to  play  a  not  unimportant  part,  moral  as  well  as 
intellectual,  has  been  spread  out  before  our  eyes.  We 
can  only  look  on  in  wondering  adoration  at  the 


ONE  PLAN  AND  ONE  MIND          237 

glory  and  vastness  of  a  temple,  built  by  Almighty 
Power  and  Wisdom,  the  forth-puttings  of  whose  hand 
we  can  see  and  trace,  but  whose  palace  and  pre- 
sence are  hidden  in  brightness  impenetrable  to  our 
sight. 

Astronomy  has  made  vast  strides  in  knowledge  of 
the  stars  since  Herschel's  death.  Other  magicians, 
imbued  with  his  spirit,  and  wielding  a  more  wonderful 
rod  of  power  than  his  40-feet  reflector,  have  arisen 
to  walk  in  his  footsteps,  and  to  tread  the  paths  of 
discovery,  which  more  or  less  dimly  he  saw  and  walked 
in — double  stars ;  treble  systems  ;  eclipses  of  suns ; 
youthful  stars;  dark  or  dying  worlds;  star  charts; 
photographic  plates,  and  vast  volumes  of  gas,  lighted 
or  dark.  More  even  than  in  his  days  have  the  barren 
heavens  proved  to  be  a  land  of  wonders  to  curious 
man. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SURVIVOR 

OF  those  who  helped  Herschel  onward  to  fame,  all 
were  dead  but  his  sister  Caroline.  Dr.  Watson,  and  Sir 
Joseph  Banks,  the  King  and  Herschel  himself  were 
gone.  A  pleasant  and  useful  fellowship  of  great  minds, 
great  in  respect  of  rank  or  great  in  intellect  and  heart, 
had  come  to  its  close.  It  had  lasted  for  about  forty 
years,  more  or  less ;  and  the  continuance  of  it  so  long 
without  break  or  jar  reflects  the  highest  credit  on  all 
four.  A  union  of  hearts  and  minds  so  unusual  is 
worthy  of  a  passing  notice. 

Sir  William  Watson  did  not  belong  to  the  Trium- 
virate as  it  was  called,  but  of  him  Herschel  always 
spoke  with  the  deepest  respect.  Unworthy  and  un- 
scrupulous men,  when  they  think  themselves  able  to 
climb  without  further  help,  have  no  repugnance  to 
kick  away  the  ladder  by  which  they  first  mounted 
into  fame.  Herschel  did  not  belong  to  that  contemptible 
class.  His  was  a  noble  nature,  and  as  generous  as  it 
was  noble.  Watson  offered  to  assist  him  with  money, 
but  he  preferred  to  meet  the  cost  of  experiment  or 
manufacture  out  of  his  own  labours.  It  was  a  noble 
resolve.  But  almost  from  the  first  he  confesses  obliga- 
tion, and  finds  a  certificate  for  himself  by  linking 
his  name  with  Watson's.  The  man  with  whose  fame 


THE  TRIUMVIRATE  239 

Europe  was  ringing,  honoured  himself  by  this  modesty 
of  bearing  and  true  manhood.  "Grieved  to  see  the 
sad  change  in  Sir  William's  health  and  spirits," 
Caroline  Herschel  wrote  of  their  early  friend  when 
she  met  him  and  his  wife  at  her  brother's  house  on 
May  10,  1817,  "  I  felt  my  only  friend  and  adviser  was 
lost  to  me." 

The   Triumvirate  was   composed   of  the  King,  Sir 
Joseph  Banks,  and  Sir  William  Herschel. 

The  King  was  dead.  Whatever  may  be  said  or 
thought  of  him  in  other  respects,  it  should  always  be 
borne  in  mind  that,  after  the  difficulties  incident  to 
Herschel's  introduction  at  Court  had  been  overcome,  he 
proved  himself  a  munificent  patron  of  science  and  an 
enlightened  friend  of  the  great  observer.  Accustomed 
himself  to  live  in  the  centre  of  a  crowd  in  his  palace, 
on  the  terrace  at  Windsor,  and  in  his  public  appear- 
ances, it  would  not  occur  to  him  that  similar  publicity 
could  be  otherwise  than  agreeable  to  his  astronomer. 
When  he  bargained  for  Herschel's  time  being  devoted, 
among  other  things,  to  receiving  visits  from  Royal  or 
titled  nonentities,  and  showing  them  his  instruments, 
he  did  not  consider  that  it  was  a  drain  on  the  astro- 
nomer's time  and  strength,  which  ought  not  to  have 
been  asked  from  him.  Caroline  Herschel,  who  saw  the 
mischief  wrought  by  this  waste  of  energy,  the  irrita- 
tion caused,  and  the  danger  run  from  standing  for 
hours  on  wet  grass  to  play  the  showman  to  a  crowd  of 
thoughtless  nobodies,  complains  bitterly,  and  not  with- 
out reason,  of  the  arrangements  thus  made.  But  the 
King  cannot  fairly  be  held  blameworthy.  Miss  Burney 
suffered  in  nearly  the  same  way.  Her  attendance  on 
Queen  Charlotte  was  a  burden  on  body  and  soul, 


240         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

similar  to  the  claims  made  on  Herschel  by  visitors 
from  Windsor  Castle.  Macaulay  reprobates,  and  justly 
reprobates,  the  thoughtless  cruelty,  to  which  it  exposed 
a  woman  who  could  have  earned  by  her  pen  ten  times 
the  income  she  received  from  dancing  attendance  on  a 
queen.  But  the  Queen  was  not  altogether  in  fault 
in  her  case ;  nor  was  the  King  in  Herschel's.  It  was 
Court  etiquette,  cruel  and  thoughtless  unquestionably ; 
— "  a  slavery  of  five  years,  of  five  years  taken  from  the 
best  part  of  her  life,  and  wasted  in  menial  drudgery  or 
in  recreations  duller  than  even  menial  drudgery,  under 
galling  restraints,  and  amidst  unfriendly  or  uninterest- 
ing companions."  l  It  was  a  huge  mistake  to  cramp 
the  genius  of  the  novelist  or  the  astronomer  by  the 
formalities  and  triflings  of  a  Court.  It  did  little  or  no 
harm  to  the  latter;  it  did  irreparable  wrong  to  the 
former.  People  who  have  lived  in  a  crowd  all  their 
lives,  to  whom  indeed  it  is  the  breath  of  life,  cannot 
understand  that  it  may  be  poison  to  genius. 

Sir  Joseph  Banks  also  was  dead.  A  year  after  his 
death  a  German  visitor  to  this  country  gives  a  pleasing 
picture  of  an  uncommon  triumvirate  of  rank  and 
science.  "  In  England,"  he  says,  "  people  have  long 
been  accustomed  to  associate  with  their  recollections  of 
their  late  revered  Monarch,  the  names  of  these  two 
veterans  in  science,  Herschel  and  Banks,  both  not  only 
of  nearly  the  same  age  with  the  King,  but  also  dis- 
tinguished by  him  with  peculiar  favour,  and  frequent 
personal  intercourse.  All  the  three  members  of  this 
singular  triumvirate  were  still  living  when  I  visited 
England;  now  the  astronomer  is  the  only  survivor." 
"  With  good  reason  did  Cuvier,  in  the  panegyric  he  pro- 

1  Macaulay,  vii.  25. 


SIR  JOSEPH  BANKS  241 

nounced  on  Sir  Joseph  before  the  French  Academy, 
assert  that  whenever  a  worthy  disciple,  or  man  of 
letters,  fell  in  his  way,  he  opened  to  them  his  treasures 
of  nature  with  the  greatest  liberality!'  Herschel  ex- 
perienced from  him  the  full  benefit  of  this  generous, 
ungrudging  nature. 

Following  the  example  of  his  predecessor  in  office  as 
President  of  the  Royal  Society,  Sir  Joseph,  possessed 
of  an  ample  fortune  which  enabled  him  to  indulge  the 
generosity  of  his  heart,  gave  receptions  to  learned  men 
and  travellers  on  Sunday  evenings.  The  stranger  thus 
describes  what  he  then  saw.  "  I  found  the  veteran  in 
the  middle  library,  in  full  dress,  with  the  broad  ribbon 
of  the  order  of  the  Bath  over  his  shoulder  and  breast ; 1 
just  as  he  used  to  appear  when  presiding  at  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Royal  Society.  Being  infirm  in  the  feet, 
Sir  Joseph  sat  in  an  arm-chair  on  rollers,  his  left  arm 
resting  on  a  table  near  him.2  He  was,  it  is  true, 
scarcely  more  than  the  outward  shell  of  a  mind 
formerly  so  animated;  both  his  apprehension  and 
recollection  being  weak ;  but  his  features  bore  a  most 
engaging  expression.  Every  stranger  was  at  least 
announced  to  him,  and  if  he  had  anything  to  shew  or 
communicate,  he  immediately  laid  it  before  him." 

This  generous,  noble-hearted  man  did  much  to  soften 
the  horrors  of  war  in  the  long  and  bloody  strife  be- 
tween this  country  and  France.  "  During  the  voyage 
of  La  Perouse,  the  French  circumnavigator,  he  induced 

1  As  he  is  represented  in  the  portrait  of  him  painted  by  Phillips,  in 
the  possession  of  the  Royal  Society. 

2  For  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  previous  to  his  death,  he  lost  the  use 
of  his  lower  limbs  so  completely  from  gout  as  to  oblige  him  to  be 
carried  or  wheeled  by  his  servants  in  a  chair :  in  this  way  he  was 
conveyed  to  the  more  dignified  chair  of  the  Royal  Society. 

16 


242         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  British  Government  to  allow  him  to  sail  in  all 
seas  unmolested.  He  himself  endeavoured,  by  means 
of  his  extensive  correspondence,  to  procure  some  cer- 
tain accounts  as  to  the  disastrous  result.  When  a 
considerable  collection  of  natural  curiosities,  which 
Labillardiere  had  sent  to  France  during  his  voyage, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  English  privateers,  and  became 
the  property  of  the  English  Government,  Sir  Joseph 
generously  exerted  his  influence  again,  and  the  result 
was  that  the  cases  were  immediately  sent  to  France, 
without  having  even  been  opened." l 

A  king,  a  landed  gentleman  of  great  wealth,  and  a 
musician  from  Bath  formed  the  triumvirate  in  science,2 
of  which  our  countrymen  used  to  speak,  and  were 
deservedly  proud  for  twenty  years  before  and  for 
twenty  after  the  beginning  of  the  present  century. 
All  three  were  dead,  but  they  were  survived  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  or  more  by  a  lady,  who  made  her- 
self famous  in  science  and  wore  her  well -won  honours 
with  the  modesty  of  true  deserving — Caroline  Lucretia 
Herschel,  the  devoted  sister  and  unwearied  assistant 
of  her  brother  William.  With  touching  pathos  she 
writes  to  Francis  Baily  in  1835,  "It  encourages  me 
now  to  address  you  as  an  old  friend,  and  I  might 
almost  say  my  only  one,  for  death  has  not  spared  me 
one  of  those  valuable  men  of  the  last  century  in  whose 
society  I  had  an  opportunity  of  spending  many  happy 
hours,  when  they  came  to  pass  an  astronomical  night 
at  Bath,  Datchet,  Clay  Hall,  and  Slough."  She  re- 

1  This  international  courtesy  was  thus  shown  on  no  fewer  than  eleven 
occasions,  and  some  of  the  collections  are  "now  of  inestimable  value" 
(1896) :  Hooker,  Journal,  etc.,  p.  xxxiii. 

9  Niemeyer,  Scots  Magazine,  i.  (1823),  pp.  692-93. 


HONOURS  TO  CAROLINE  HERSCHEL  243 

mained,  to  the  end  of  her  long  life,  the  same  loving 
worshipper  of  departed  greatness  that  she  had  been 
during  her  brother's  lifetime,  and  the  same  outspoken 
critic  of  men  and  women  whom  she  happened  to  meet. 
Thirteen  years  after  she  left  England,  she  wrote: 
"  Within  the  last  two  months  I  have  been  obliged  to 
exert  myself  once  more  to  answer  two  letters,  one  to 
Mr.  De  Morgan,  the  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Astrono- 
mical Society,  the  other  to  Mr.  Baily  (who,  I  suppose, 
is  President),  for  they  have  been  pleased  to  choose  me, 
along  with  Mrs.  Somerville,  to  be  a  member  (God 
knows  what  for)  of  their  Society."  Promotion !  she 
says,  they  call  it  in  Hanover,  and  laughingly  talks  of 
"  our  Society,  of  which  I  am  now  a  fellow  ! "  She 
was  then  eighty-five  years  of  age.  Apparently  she 
was  of  the  same  mind  as  Hannah  More,  who,  when 
she  found  her  name  proposed  as  an  honorary  member 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Literature,  wrote  a  strong 
remonstrance,  declining  the  distinction,  chiefly  "be- 
cause I  consider  the  circumstance  of  sex  alone  a 
disqualification." 1 

In  November  1838  she  was  also  elected  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy,  Dublin:  and 
besides  she  received  in  1846,  from  the  King  of  Prussia, 
a  gold  medal  for  science.  Well  earned  though  both  of 
these  honours  were,  she  wrote  with  the  modesty  of 
true  science,  when  she  heard  of  the  former,  "  I  cannot 
help  crying  out  aloud  to  myself,  every  now  and  then, 
'  What  is  THAT  for  ?'...!  think  almost  it  is  mocking 
me  to  look  upon  me  as  a  Member  of  an  Academy :  I 
that  have  lived  these  eighteen  years  (against  my  will 
and  intention)  without  finding  as  much  as  a  single 
1  Life,  ii.  307,  December  23,  1820.  She  was  then  seventy-five. 


244         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

comet."  At  the  same  time  she  could  flare  up  with 
true  feminine  fire  when  it  seemed  to  her  that  her 
dignity,  as  a  woman  of  science,  was  in  any  degree 
infringed.  "  This  puts  me  in  mind  of  Olbers  saying 
somewhere,"  she  wrote,  "  I  had  discovered  five  comets. 
Who  wanted  him  to  give  the  number  of  my  comets  when 
he  knew  them  no  better  ?  As  far  as  I  recollect,  Dr. 
Maskelyne  has  observed  them  all,  and  his  observations 
on  them  are,  I  daresay,  all  printed  in  the  volumes  of  the 
Greenwich  observations — at  least  of  some  he  has  shown 
me  the  proof  sheets.  I  never  called  a  comet  mine  till 
several  post  days  were  passed  without  any  account  of 
them  coming  to  hand."  She  was  then  ninety-two  years 
of  age,  and  Olbers  had  died  more  than  two  years  before. 

Caroline  Herschel  maintained  to  the  close  of  her 
days  the  same  habits  of  thrift,  the  same  dread  of  not 
getting  the  two  ends  to  meet,  and  the  same  foresight 
in  providing  means  for  ends  that  characterised  her 
early  life.  She  enjoyed  a  pension  of  £50  a  year  from 
the  Civil  List — a  small  allowance  for  so  deserving  a 
recipient.  She  had  also  an  annuity  of  £100  settled 
on  her  by  her  brother's  will — a  small  return,  we  should 
say,  for  the  invaluable  services  she  rendered,  but  a 
sum  which  she  probably  regarded  as  unnecessarily 
taken  out  of  her  "  dear  nephew's  "  pocket.  "  Let  the 
time  come  when  it  may  please  God,"  she  writes  in 
her  eighty-fifth  year,  "I  leave  cash  enough  behind 
to  clear  me  from  all  and  any  obligations  to  all  who 
here  do  know  me.  Even  the  expenses  of  a  respectable 
funeral  lie  ready  to  enable  my  friend  Mrs.  Beckedorff, 
and  one  of  my  nieces  to  fulfil  my  directions. 

"I  hope  you  will  pardon  my  troubling  you  with 
such  doleful  subjects,  but  I  wish  to  show  you  that 


DISTANCES  OF  THE  STARS          245 

my  income  is  by  one  third  more  than  I  have  the 
power  to  spend,  for  by  a  twelve  years'  trial  I  find 
that  I  cannot  get  rid  of  more  than  600  thl.  =  £100  per 
year,  without  making  myself  ridiculous." 

Her  thoughts  were  not  set  on  money,  or  on  the 
respect  which  money,  honourably  earned,  usually 
brings.  The  memory  of  the  "best  and  dearest  of 
brothers"  clung  to  her  with  an  all-absorbing  power. 
It  was  her  first  and  her  last  love.  "  You  have  made 
me  completely  happy  for  some  time,"  she  wrote  from 
Hanover  to  his  son,  "  with  the  account  you  sent  me  of 
the  double  stars ;  but  it  vexes  me  more  and  more  that 
in  this  abominable  city  there  is  no  one  who  is  capable 
of  partaking  in  the  joy  I  feel  on  this  revival  of  your 
father's  name.  His  observations  on  double  stars  were 
from  first  to  last  the  most  interesting  subject;  he 
never  lost  sight  of  it  in  his  papers  on  the  construction 
of  the  heavens,  etc.  And  I  cannot  help  lamenting 
that  he  could  not  take  to  his  grave  with  him  the  satis- 
faction I  feel  at  present  in  seeing  his  son  doing  him 
so  ample  justice  by  endeavouring  to  perfect  what  he 
could  only  begin."  When  Sir  John  Herschel  delivered 
the  address  that  preceded  the  handing  over  to  Bessel 
of  the  Astronomical  Society's  Gold  Medal  for  deter- 
mining, by  means  of  the  heliometer,  the  distance  from 
us  of  the  double  star  61  Cygni,  she  was  heart  and  soul 
with  him  when  he  said,  "Gentlemen,  I  congratulate 
you  and  myself  that  we  have  lived  to  see  the  great 
and  hitherto  impassable  barrier  to  our  excursions  into 
the  sidereal  universe — that  barrier  against  which  we 
have  chafed  so  long  and  so  vainly — almost  simultane- 
ously overleaped  at  three  different  points."1  He 

1  Astron.  Soc.  Trans,  xii.  448-53. 


246          HERSCHEL  AND   HIS  WORK 

described  this  discovery  of  the  distance  of  a  fixed  star 
as  the  greatest  and  most  glorious  triumph  which  prac- 
tical astronomy  has  perhaps  ever  witnessed,  and  the 
three  who  shared  the  triumph  between  them  were 
Bessel  with  61  Cygni,  Henderson  1  of  Edinburgh  with 
«  Centauri,  and  Struve  of  Dorpat  with  a  Lyree.  Bessel's 
object-glass,  that  he  got  cut  in  two  to  form  a  helio- 
meter,  Sir  John  saw  at  Munich  before  it  was  mounted, 
considered  it  invaluable,  and  believed  that  genius  alone 
could  have  dared  to  divide  it  in  two  for  the  purposes 
of  science.  Caroline  Herschel's  delight,  in  her  retire- 
ment, at  the  success  of  these  three  astronomers  in 
following  her  baffled  brother's  lead  may  be  imagined. 
To  know  that  the  parallax  of  a  fixed  star  had  been 
found  by  Bessel  to  be  the  f^fr  of  a  second  !  To  know 
that  it  was  a  double  star  !  To  know,  besides,  that  the 
smaller  of  the  two  companion  stars  revolved  round 
the  larger  in  an  orbit  fifty  times  the  diameter  of  the 
earth's  orbit  round  the  sun,  or  two  and  a  half  times 
that  of  Uranus !  and  to  know  also  that  the  pair  of 
stars  were  670,000  times  as  distant  from  us  as  is  the 
sun !  To  her  these  discoveries  were  a  delightful  com- 
mentary on  her  brother's  words — "  In  this  case,  millions 
of  years  are  perhaps  but  moments."  The  "little  old 
woman  "  in  the  "  abominable  city  "  of  Hanover,  unable 
to  endure  "  happy  England,"  where  her  dead  hero  was 
buried,  and  where  his  son,  her  nephew,  was  a  foremost 
name  in  the  world  of  science,  revelled  in  the  news  that 

1  It  is  only  just  to  Henderson  to  say  that  he  was  preferred  by  Lord 
Advocate  Jeffrey  to  the  Edinburgh  Professorship  of  Astronomy  over 
his  rival,  Thomas  Carlyle.  Froude  was  guilty  of  an  unpardonable 
blunder  in  printing  the  unwise  and  acrimonious  criticism  of  Carlyle  on 
Henderson's  fitness  for  the  post.  Facts  had  given  a  verdict  in  Hender- 
son's favour. 


LIVES  OF  WILLIAM   HERSCHEL     247 

were  brought  her  of  hopes  at  last  fulfilled,  and  thought 
longingly  of  the  seven-feet  reflector,  with  which  she 
used  to  sweep  the  heavens,  as  it  stood  in  the  room 
beside  her,  but  which  she  should  never  use  again. 

"  How  I  envy  you  having  seen  Bessel,"  she  wrote 
to  her  nephew  in  1842 — "  the  man  who  found  us  the 
parallax  of  61  Cygni."  1 

"  The  seven-foot  shall  stand  in  my  room,  and  be  my 
monument,"  she  wrote  to  her  nephew  in  1823;  what 
to  do  with  it  was  a  puzzle  to  her.  Her  sweeper  she 
thought  of  leaving  to  her  girlhood's  friend's  daughter, 
Miss  Beckedorff,  but  in  1840  it  was  consigned  to  "the 
hands  of  the  good,  honest  creature,  Dr.  Hausmann." 
"The  five-foot  Newtonian  reflector,"  she  wrote  that 
same  year,2  "  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Royal  Astronomical 
Society,  and  will  be  preserved  by  it  as  the  little  tele- 
scope of  Newton  is  by  the  Royal  Society,  long  after 
I  and  all  the  little  ones  are  dead  and  gone."  It  was 
a  source  of  justifiable  pride  to  her  as  she  neared  the 
end. 

Faithful  to  the  memory  and  greatness  of  her  de- 
parted brother,  she  resented  every  attempt  at  an 
imperfect  or  unworthy  presentation  of  his  life  and 
works.  What  she  should  have  done  herself,  and  she 
had  better  means  than  others  of  doing  it  truthfully 
and  faithfully,  she  left  to  the  ignorant  or  the  conceited 
to  attempt.  She  could  only  rail  at  their  efforts,  and 
wish  they  had  left  the  work  alone.  It  was  not  just 
to  them  or  to  him.  The  world  wishes  to  know  some- 
thing of  those  whose  greatness  of  mind  or  achievement 
has  enriched  humanity  or  extended  its  knowledge  of 

1  Memoirs,  p.  327. 

2  "  Five-foot  Newtonian  sweeper,"  Memoirs,  p.  91. 


248         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

nature.  Herschel  had  done  so  in  a  pre-eminent  degree. 
With  good  reason,  then,  the  world  said,  Tell  us  about 
him;  his  faults,  if  he  had  any,  we  can  forgive  and 
forget ;  his  virtues  we  can  admire  or  follow.  Caroline 
Herschel  did  not  take  this  view  of  her  duty.  She 
left  it  to  others  to  write  what  she  could  have  written 
better,  and  to  record  what  she  knew  at  first  hand,  and 
they  did  not  know  at  all  or  only  as  dull  echoes  of  a 
resounding  past.  "  The  Germans  are  very  busy  about 
the  fame  of  your  dear  father,"  she  writes ;  "  there  does 
not  pass  a  month  but  something  appears  in  print, 
and  Dr.  Groskopf  saw  it  stated  that  Professor  Pfaff 
had  translated  all  your  dear  father's  papers  from 
the  Phil.  Trans,  into  German,  and  which  will  be 
published  in  Dresden.  I  wish  he  had  left  it  for  some 
good  astronomer  to  do  the  same."  Evidently  the 
acid  of  her  temper  had  been  called  into  action  by 
Professor  Pfaff.  Her  nephew  describes  him  in  reply 
as  "  a  respectable  mathematician,  and  I  hope  it  is  he 
who  undertakes  the  work."  "  Johann  Wilhelm  Pfaff," 
she  answers,  "  professor,  in  Erlangen,  is  the  same  who 
intends  to  translate  your  father's  papers,  but  those 
only  which  he  can  get  a  copy  of.  The  Philosophical 
Transactions,  I  am  told,  are  not  within  his  reach." 
The  acid  is  a  little  sweetened;  not  much,  and  it  is 
clear  that  Caroline  Herschel  at  eighty-five  does  not 
differ  in  temper  at  least  from  the  same  lady  at  twenty- 
two.  Alas  !  her  inventory  of  books,  pictures,  etc.,  showed 
what  she  thought  of  the  Professor's  two- volume  edition 
of  her  brother's  collected  works,  "Abominable  stuff! 
What  is  to  be  done  with  them  ?  They  are  so  prettily 
bound,  I  cannot  take  it  in  my  heart  to  burn  them." 
But  she  could  lash  with  her  tongue  everybody  who 


HERSCHEL'S  PICTURE  249 

even  praised  her  dead  hero.  "Now  we  talk  of  bio- 
graphies," she  wrote  twelve  years  afterwards,  "  I  have 
no  less  than  nine  of  my  poor  brother,  and  heard  of 
two  more,  one  by  Zach,  which  I  shall  try  to  get  sight 
of.  There  is  but  one  or  two  which  are  bordering  on 
truth,  the  rest  being  stuff,  not  worth  while  to  fret 
about.  The  best  is  accompanied  with  a  miniature  of 
Reberg's  bad  copy."  "  Bordering  on  truth !  stuff ! " 
Her  description  of  her  own  racy  letters  is  equally 
amusing:  "I  was  in  hopes  you  would  have  thrown 
away  such  incoherent  stuff  .  .  .  and  not  to  let  it  rise 
in  judgment  against  my,  perhaps,  bad  grammar,  bad 
spelling,  etc." 

Even  a  small  matter  became  great  where  his  name 
was  concerned.  "  The  following  hint  is  only  to  you  as 
a  dear  sister,"  she  writes  to  her  brother's  widow,  "  for 
as  such  I  now  know  you: — All  I  am  possessed  of  is 
looked  upon  as  their  own,  when  I  am  gone ;  the  dis- 
posal of  my  brother's  picture  is  even  denied  me — it 
hangs  in  Mrs.  H.'s  drawing-room,  where  a  set  of  old 
women  play  cards  under  it  on  her  club  day."  Summary 
also  was  her  judgment  of  anyone  who  attempted  to 
rival  or  surpass  her  brother :  "  The  fellow  is  a  fool." 
Great  was  her  excitement  on  learning  that  her  nephew 
was  preparing  to  complete  in  the  southern  hemisphere 
the  gauging  of  the  heavens,  which  his  father  had 
begun,  and  for  many  a  year  carried  on  in  the  northern. 
That  was  allowable.  It  was  a  war  trumpet  blown 
within  hearing  of  a  war  horse,  that  had  served  its  last 
campaign.  "  Dr.  Tias,  who  travelled  through  Hanover, 
called  on  me  to-day,"  she  writes  to  Lady  Herschel. 
"  He  talked  strangely  about  my  nephew's  intention  of 
going  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  Mr.  Hausmann  told 


250         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

me  some  weeks  ago  that  the  Times  contained  the  same 
report,  to  which  I  replied,  '  It  is  a  lie ! '  but  what  I 
heard  from  Dr.  Tias  to-day  makes  me  almost  believe  it 
possible.  Ja !  if  I  was  thirty  or  forty  years  younger, 
and  could  go  too  ?  In  Gottes  nahmen !  But  I  will 
not  think  about  it  till  you  yourself  tell  me  more  of  it, 
for  I  have  enough  to  think  of  my  cramps,  blindness, 
sleepless  nights,  etc."  She  was  a  wonderful  "  little  old 
woman."  Pointed  at  on  the  street,  honoured  by  the 
Palace,  and  saluted  with  profoundest  respect  at  theatre 
or  concert,  she  wrote,  "  Next  to  listening  to  the  con- 
versation of  learned  men,  I  like  to  hear  about  them, 
but  I  find  myself,  unfortunately,  among  beings  who 
like  nothing  but  smoking,  big  talk  on  politics,  wars  and 
such  like  things."  Her  indignation  flamed  up  as  fiercely 
when  she  was  ninety  years  of  age  as  it  used  to  do  when 
she  was  twenty,  especially  at  anyone  who  took  her 
for  what  she  was  not,  weak  of  will  or  understanding. 
"  Thank  God,  I  have  yet  sense  enough  left  to  caution 
you  against  being  imposed  upon  by  a  stupid  being, 
who  would  make  you  believe  I  died  under  obligations 
to  any  of  the  family.  I  know  he  has  already,  without 
asking  my  leave,  passed  himself  off  for  my  guardian, 
and  is  vexed  at  my  being  able  to  do  without  him. 
But  I  could  not  live  without  that  little  business  of 
keeping  my  accounts ;  and  by  my  last  book  of  expenses 
and  receipts  may  be  seen,  that  I  owe  nothing  to  any 
body,  but  to  my  dear  nephew  many  many  thanks  for 
fulfilling  his  father's  wishes,  by  paying  for  so  many 
years  the  ample  annuity  he  left  me."  What  a  brave 
little  old  woman  she  was !  Nobody  but  herself  was  at 
liberty  to  call  her  "an  old  poor  sick  creature  in  her 
dotage." 


"DECAYING:  LESS  CORRUPTION"    251 

Sometimes  at  the  theatre  to  be  seen  and  saluted  by 
all,  sometimes  at  the  palace  to  be  honoured  by  the 
King's  brother  as  his  countrywoman,  sometimes  in 
correspondence  with  scientific  men,  and  hearing  of 
their  achievements,  she  maintained  to  the  last  her 
cheerful  interest  in  life.  Though  her  eyesight  was 
failing,  and  she  could  "  hardly  find  the  line  again  she 
had  just  been  tracing  by  feeling  on  paper,"  her  nephew 
writes  of  her  in  1832,  "  She  runs  about  the  town  with 
me,  and  skips  up  her  two  pair  of  stairs  as  light  and 
fresh  at  least  as  some  folks  I  could  name,  who  are  not  a 
fourth  part  of  her  age.  ...  In  the  morning  till  eleven 
or  twelve  she  is  dull  and  weary,  but  as  the  day 
advances  she  gains  life,  and  is  quite  '  fresh  and  funny ' 
at  ten  or  eleven  p.m.,  and  sings  old  rhymes,  nay,  even 
dances!  to  the  great  delight  of  all  who  see  her."  It 
is  such  a  picture  of  four  score  as  Cicero  would  have 
been  overjoyed  to  prefix  as  a  frontispiece  to  his  treatise 
on  "  Old  Age,"  had  it  been  available  in  his  day.  She 
spoke  in  her  usual  spirit  of  drollery  of  "  her  brittle 
constitution,"  and  looked  for  it  going  to  pieces  in  the 
great  heats  of  summer  fourteen  years  before  it  did. 
"  My  complaint  is  incurable,"  she  says,  "  for  it  is  a 
decay  of  nature.  .  .  .  What  a  shocking  idea  it  is  to  be 
decaying !  decaying !  But,  never  mind — if  I  am  decay- 
ing here,  there  will  be  as  Mrs.  Maskelyne  once  was 
comforting  me  (on  observing  my  growing  lean)  the 
less  corruption  in  my  grave ! "  But,  in  view  of  the 
end,  it  is  always  to  "  the  best  and  dearest  of  brothers," 
to  her  "  dear  nephew,"  and  to  her  namesake,  his  little 
daughter,  that  her  thoughts  revert.  She  enjoyed  the 
present ;  she  revelled  and  lived  in  the  past.  "  I  have 
now  received  in  all  five  letters,"  she  writes  to  Lady 


252         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Herschel  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  "  Each  time  after 
having  read  them  over  again  they  are  put  by,  under 
thanksgiving  to  the  Almighty,  with  a  prayer  for  future 
protection." 

"  Writing  to  my  absent  friends  is  one  of  the  most 
laborious  employments  I  could  fly  to  when  under 
bodily  and,  of  course,  mental  sickness,  for  it  is  not 
impossible  I  might,  instead  of  making  inquiry  about 
my  little  precious  grand-nephew,  and  the  young  ladies, 
who  play,  sing  and  sew  so  prettily,  write,  '  Oh !  my 
back,  O  !  I  have  the  cramp  here,  there,'  etc."  She  is 
nearing  the  end  of  life,  "  going  many  nights  to  bed 
without  the  hope  of  seeing  another  day."  But  the  old 
spirit  of  drollery,  and  the  lifelong  love  of  science  are 
constantly  flashing  out.  "  I  could  not  live  without  that 
little  business  of  keeping  my  accounts,"  she  writes,  and 
shows  herself  true  to  a  woman's  household-place,  and 
to  science  at  the  same  time.  "  I  hope  people  in  England 
will  never  go  such  lengths  in  foolery  as  they  do  here." 
At  Christmas  time,  "  Cooks  and  housemaids  present  one 
another  with  knitted  bags  and  purses,  the  cobbler's 
daughter  embroidered  neck-cushions  for  her  friend  the 
butcher's  daughter,  which  are  made  up  by  the  uphol- 
sterer at  great  expense,  lined  with  white  satin,  the 
upper  part,  on  which  the  back  is  to  rest,  is  worked 
with  gold,  silver,  and  pearls."  And,  drollest  of  all,  she 
adds,  "  Writing  this,  puts  me  in  mind  that  I  never  could 
remember  the  multiplication  table,  but  was  obliged  to 
carry  always  a  copy  of  it  about  me." 

A  last  gratification,  and  certainly  not  the  least  of 
the  many  she  enjoyed  during  her  retirement,  was  the 
placing  in  her  hands  of  her  nephew's  completion  in 
South  Africa  of  his  father's  survey  of  the  heavens. 


NEARING  THE  END  253 

It  was  a  work  of  devotion  to  a  father's  memory  and 
greatness,  executed  with  untiring  zeal  and  sometimes 
at  the  risk  of  broken  bones.  She  was  unable  to  read 
this  record  of  the  splendid  work  her  nephew  accom- 
plished, when  four  years  of  laborious  research,  and  a 
longer  period  of  study  were  at  last  crowned  with 
presenting  to  the  world  a  book,  of  which  "  it  may  be 
safely  said,  that  no  single  publication,  during  the  last 
century,  has  made  so  many  and  such  considerable 
additions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  constitution  of  the 
heavens."  What  she  could  not  read  herself,  another 
read  for  her,  as  her  nephew  recommended  when  he 
sent  her  a  copy  of  the  work. 

As  the  end  of  life  and  activity  drew  nearer,  there  is 
no  longer  the  same  desire  to  live  she  felt  in  previous 
years:  "I  have  been  very  ill  and  confined  to  my 
room  now  three  weeks,  but  it  seems  the  Destroying 
Angel  has  passed  away,  at  which  I  am  very  glad, 
because  I  wish  to  be  a  little  better  prepared  for  making 
my  exit  than  I  am  at  present."  She  was  then  eighty 
years  of  age.  A  few  years  later  she  began  to  feel 
more  keenly  the  sadness  of  life,  and  the  longing  for 
something  better  than  it  ever  gives.  Many  of  the  best 
and  brightest  minds  have  felt  as  she  felt  when  she 
wrote  these  words :  "  The  whole  of  yesterday  I  had  no 
other  prospect  but  that  it  would  have  been  the  last  of 
the  days  of  sorrow,  trouble  and  disappointment  I  have 
spent  from  the  moment  I  had  any  recollection  of  my 
existence,  which  is  from  between  my  third  and  fourth 
year.  ...  In  the  night  I  fell  out  of  one  fainting  fit 
into  another,  and  when  I  came  to  my  recollection,  be- 
tween six  and  seven  in  the  morning,  I  found  Dr.  G. 
sitting  before  me  talking  loud  in  his  usual  nonsensical 


254         HERSCHEL  AND  HIS  WORK 

way.  Him  had  Betty  called  in  her  fright,  for  his  wife 
(who  is  of  use  to  nobody)  is  gone  to  spend  the  summer 
months  in  the  country."  Even  in  the  presence  of  death 
and  in  the  ninetieth  year  of  her  age,  the  old  spirit  of 
drollery  gives  piquancy  to  her  views  of  men  and  women. 
In  committing  to  paper  her  last  reflections  on  the  dis- 
appointments of  life,  she  writes :  You  "  will  see  what  a 
solitary  and  useless  life  I  have  led  these  seventeen 
years,  all  owing  to  not  finding  Hanover,  nor  any  one  in 
it,  like  what  I  left,  when  the  best  of  brothers  took  me 
with  him  to  England  in  August,  1772  !"  In  reality  it 
was  she  herself,  dissatisfied  with  earth,  who  was  longing 
for  something  better  than  earth  can  give.  She  tells  us 
what  it  was  in  the  epitaph  that  she  wrote  on  herself, 
and  that  was  graven  on  her  tomb  : — 

Here  rests  the  earthly  exterior  of 
CAKOLINA    HEKSCHEL, 

Born  at  Hanover,  March  16,  1750, 
Died  January  9,  1848. 

The  eyes  of  Her  who  is  glorified  were  here  below  turned  to  the 
starry  Heavens.  Her  own  Discoveries  of  Comets,  and  her  par- 
ticipation in  the  immortal  Labours  of  her  Brother,  William 
Herschel,  bear  witness  of  this  to  future  ages. 

The  Koyal  Irish  Academy  of  Dublin  and  the  Koyal  Astronomical 
Society  of  London  enrolled  Her  name  among  their  members. 

At  the  age  of  97  years  10  months  she  fell  asleep  in  calm  rest 
and  in  the  full  possession  of  her  faculties,  following  into  a  better 
Life  her  Father,  Isaac  Herschel,  who  lived  to  the  age  of  60  years 
2  months  17  days,  and  lies  buried  not  far  off,  since  the  29th  of 
March  1767. 

Were  it  not  for  the  unquestionable  authority  with 
which  it  comes  to  us  that  she  wrote  this  account  of  her 
death  with  her  own  hand,  we  might  be  disposed  to 


FAIRY  PRINCE;  SLEEPING  PRINCESS  255 

feel  the  same  doubts  about  the  authorship,  that  critics 
generally  feel  about  the  authorship  of  the  last  chapter 
of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  in  which  Moses  is  com- 
monly supposed  to  have  recorded  his  own  death  and 
funeral.  And  thus  closes  the  wonderful  story  of  William 
Herschel  and  his  sister  Caroline,  the  story  of  the  fairy 
prince  of  science  coming  to  the  sleeping  princess  of  the 
heavens  to  awake  her  and  all  her  company  from  the 
sleep  of  ages  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the 
story  of  the  despised  household  drudge,  Cinderella, 
taking  a  place,  a  deserved  place,  among  the  laurelled 
benefactors  of  humanity.  Future  ages  are  certain  to 
witness  many  histories  of  men  and  women,  of  fairy 
princes  and  ragged  Cinderellas,  uniting  perseverance 
to  genius,  prosaic  detail  to  lofty  imaginings.  Other 
women  since  her  time  have  shrined  their  names  as 
worthy  travellers  among  the  stars ;  but,  while  they  may 
never  eclipse  the  brightness  of  the  sunshine  I  have 
endeavoured  to  picture  in  this  little  book,  Encke's 
homage  will  be  echoed  by  all  time — "A  lady  whose 
name  is  so  intimately  connected  with  the  most  brilliant 
astronomical  discoveries  of  the  age,  and  whose  claims 
to  the  gratitude  of  every  astronomer  will  be  as  con- 
spicuous as  her  own  exertions  for  extending  the 
boundaries  of  our  knowledge,  and  for  assisting  to 
develop  the  discoveries  by  which  the  name  of  her 
great  brother  has  been  rendered  so  famous  throughout 
the  literary  world." 


APPENDIX 

(PAGE  44) 


IN  the  short  notice  of  his  early  life  communicated  by 
Herschel  in  1783  to  the  editor  of  the  Gb'ttingen  Magazine  of 
Science  and  Literature,  Herschel  says  little  of  that  part  of 
his  residence  in  England  which  preceded  his  discovery  by 
Dr.  Watson  in  1779.  What  he  does  say  may  be  summed 
up  in  his  own  words  : — 

I  remained  "in  the  army,  however,  until  I  reached  my 
nineteenth  year  [1757],  when  I  resigned  and  went  over  to 
England.  My  familiarity  with  the  organ,  which  I  had 
carefully  mastered  previously,  soon  procured  for  me  the 
position  of  organist  in  Yorkshire,  which  I  finally  exchanged 
for  a  similar  situation  at  Bath  in  1766,  and  while  here  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  my  post,  as  agreeable  as  it  was 
lucrative,  made  it  possible  for  me  to  occupy  myself  once  more 
with  my  studies,  especially  with  mathematics."1  "A  similar 
situation  at  Bath  in  1766"  seems  to  refer  to  the  Octagon 
Chapel,  and  is  so  stated  in  his  sister's  Memoirs.  But  there 
are  serious  objections  to  this  account  of  his  removal  from 
Halifax  to  Bath. 

In   October    1822    there   appeared   in   the   New   Monthly 
Magazine,  of  which  Thomas  Campbell,  the  poet,  was  then 
editor,  an  obituary  notice  of  Herschel,  which  gave  another 
and  a  fuller  version  of  his  removal  to  Bath.     Unfortunately, 
1  Professor  Holden,  Life  and  Works  of  Sir  William  Herschel,  p.  4. 
17 


258  APPENDIX 

though  the  admiration  and  friendship  of  the  poet  for  the 
astronomer  are  well  known,  it  contains  mistakes  in  dates, 
otherwise  ascertained.  "  He  was  master  of  the  band  of  a 
regiment  which  was  quartered  at  Halifax  in  the  year  1770" 
may  be  true,  but  "  where  he  continued  for  many  years " 
cannot  be  correct.  It  may  also  be  true,  though  it  seems  to 
conflict  with  Southey's  story,  that  he  obtained  the  post  of 
organist  for  the  newly  erected  organ  in  that  town  through 
the  influence  of  Joah  Bates,  son  of  the  parish  clerk.  The 
story  then  proceeds :  "  Disliking  the  monotony  of  a  country 
town,  he  removed  with  his  brother  to  Bath,  where  they 
were  both  engaged  for  the  Pump-room  band  by  the  late 
Mr.  Linley,  who  then  conducted  the  first  musical  entertain- 
ments established  in  that  city,  and  where  the  delightful 
warblings  of  his  siren  daughters,  Mrs.  Sheridan  and  Mrs.  Tickel, 
will  ever  be  remembered.  Sir  William  was,  like  his  nephew 
Griesbach,  esteemed  an  excellent  performer  on  the  oboe,  as 
his  brother  was  on  the  violoncello." 

This  connection  of  Linley  with  Herschel  is  not  referred  to 
by  Caroline  in  her  Memoirs.  But  it  derives  importance  from 
the  fact  that,  according  to  her  testimony,  there  were,  or  seem 
to  have  been,  disagreeable  passages  between  them.  At  any 
rate  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  Herschel  did  not 
remove  from  Halifax  to  Bath,  as  has  generally  been  given 
out,  to  become  organist  in  the  Octagon  Chapel  in  1766. 
"The  Chapel  was  built  in  1766,  and  opened  for  divine 
service  in  December  1767."  Herschel  had  been  more  than 
a  year  in  Bath  at  that  time ;  he  had  also  been  giving  concerts 
on  his  own  account,  as  his  sister  gives  us  distinctly  to  under- 
stand, and  on  January  3,  1767,  he  returns  thanks,  through  the 
Bath  Chronicle,  to  the  company  who  did  him  the  honour  of 
attending  his  concert.1  He  informs  them  at  the  same  time 
that  he  teaches  the  guitar  as  well  as  singing,  and  takes 

1 1  am  indebted  for  these  facts  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Sturge  Cotterell, 
of  Bath. 


APPENDIX  259 

pupils  for  the  harpsichord  and  violin.  That  one  of  the 
principal  members  of  the  Pump-room  band  should  be 
appointed  organist  in  the  newly  erected  Octagon  Chapel 
is  most  likely,  and  he  seems  to  have  occupied  the  post  for 
about  nine  years.  "He  took  great  delight  in  a  choir  of 
singers  who  performed  the  cathedral  service  at  the  Octagon 
Chapel,  for  whom  he  composed  many  excellent  anthems, 
chants,  and  psalm  tunes."  Caroline  Herschel  adds :  "  This 
anthem  was  left  with  the  rest  of  my  brother's  sacred  com- 
positions, which  were  left  in  trust  with  one  of  the  choristers. 
.  .  .  All  is  lost.  .  .  .  With  difficulty,  many  years  after,  one 
Te  Deum  was  recovered,  and  when  I  was  in  Bath  in  1800  I 
obtained  two  or  three  torn  books  of  odd  parts."  It  is 
difficult  to  understand  why  the  compositions  were  left  at  all, 
still  more  to  understand  what  Mr.  Linley  had  to  do  with  the 
matter,  for  "  the  chorister's  wife  openly  charged  Mr.  Linley 
with  having  taken  possession  of  these  treasures."  J 

The  story  in  Campbell's  magazine  proceeds  :  "  Sir  William 
pursued  his  profession  at  Bath  for  some  years,  highly  esteemed 
by  a  numerous  circle  of  friends,  and  increasing  in  fame  and 
fortune."  Whether  this  was  fact  or  poetic  licence  may  be 
matter  of  debate ;  but  the  words  attributed  by  the  writer  to 
King  George  in.,  that  "Herschel  should  not  sacrifice  his 
valuable  time  to  crotchets  and  quavers,"  may  justly  be 
accepted  as  genuine.  And  the  two  sentences  with  which  the 
notice  concludes  go  far  to  prove  that  the  writer  of  it  was  the 
poet-editor  himself ;  "  Sir  William  possessed  '  the  milk  of 
human  kindness'  in  an  eminent  degree,  and  was  most 
anxious  to  gratify  his  numerous  visitors  by  explaining  'the 
complicated  machinery  of  his  mind '  in  the  simplest  manner 
possible.  No  one  ever  returned  from  his  hospitable  cottage 
without  feeling  gratified  with  the  urbanity  of  the  man,  and 
improved  by  the  productions  of  his  genius." 

A  relic  of  these  early  days  is  still  preserved  at  Bath  in  the 
1  Memoirs,  note  at  p.  36. 


26o  APPENDIX 

pieces  of  the  organ  on  which  Herschel  played,  and  which 
may  again  be  erected  as  a  memorial  of  the  great  astronomer 
in  the  city  that  was  the  birthplace  of  his  fame. 

Evidently  Herschel's  views  of  the  heavens  left  an  abiding 
impression  on  Campbell's  mind.1  Eighteen  years  after  his 
first  meeting  with  Herschel,  and  nine  after  the  astronomer's 
death,  he  became  acquainted  with  Pond,  then  Astronomer- 
Royal,  whose  "  most  interesting  and  instructive  "  conversation 
he  likens  to  "a  gift  from  Providence."  He  then  proceeds  to 
say  :  "  I  had  lately  been  dabbling  in  the  astronomical  relics  of 
the  Greek  Alexandrian  school,  and  had  the  idea  of  embodying 
my  notes  on  ancient  geography  into  a  regular  history,  when 
this  Life  of  Mrs.  Siddons  suspended  my  intention.  But  I 
have  of  late  been  so  interested  in  the  subject,  that  I 
revised  my  mathematics,  the  better  to  understand  the 
histories  of  ancient  science  given  by  Ideler  and  Delambre. 
Mr.  Pond's  conversation  has  been,  therefore,  eagerly  sought 
by  me, — and  he  is  most  affably  communicative. 

"We  have  just  been  gazing  on  Jupiter  and  his  moons, 
through  a  glass  that  makes  Jove  appear  as  large  as  the 
sun's  disk,  and  his  satellites  like  ordinary  stars  !  The  moon 
appears  through  it  as  large  as  a  church.  His  opinion  of  her 
ladyship  is  that  she  is  not  inhabited — there  being  no  atmo- 
sphere— and  the  whole  region,  probably,  only  ice  and  snow. 
Strange  enough  that  a  body,  which  creates  such  lively 
crotchets  in  so  many  human  brains,  should  itself  be  cold  and 
lifeless." 

Campbell's  poetry,  whether  in  prose  or  verse,  would 
probably  have  been  more  worth  reading  than  Dr.  Burney's 
astronomical  poem,  but  neither  of  them  ever  saw  the  light  of 
day.  One  thing  Campbell  relates.  Mrs.  Pond,  he  says, 
"  when  I  first  saw  her,  as  she  was  walking — shortly  after 
their  marriage — was  a  young,  fair,  and  graceful  woman,  arm 
in  arm  with  her  very  plain  and  elderly  husband.  There  was 
i  See  above,  pp.  207-9.  2  Beattie,  Life  of  Campbell,  iii.  94. 


APPENDIX  261 

an  epigram  in  the  newspaper  about  them.  Mr.  Pond  had 
published  some  remarks  on  the  planet  '  Venus,'  and  the  wit 
asked  him,  '  Why  he  troubled  himself  about  Venus  in  the 
skies,  when  he  had  got  Venus  beside  him  on  earth  ? ' '; 

The  enthusiasm  shown  in  Campbell's  account  of  his  inter- 
view with  Herschel,  however,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  so 
lasting  as  could  be  wished.  In  his  lines  "  To  the  Rainbow," 
written  six  years  after,  in  1819,  he  says — 

"When  Science  from  Creation's  face 

Enchantment's  veil  withdraws, 
What  lovely  visions  yield  their  place 
To  cold  material  laws  !  " 

The  idea,  like  the  feet  in  the  last  line,  is  somewhat 
halting. 


INDEX 


Amici,  121. 
Asteroids,  72,  191. 

Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  111,  239. 
Bath,  as  seen  by  Smollett,  2  ;  by 

Horace  Walpole,  46. 
,,      housekeeping  at,  33. 
Brewster,  Sir  David,  102,  234. 
Bulman  (Leeds),  33. 
Burney,  opinion  of  Jacob  Herschel, 

32. 

,,        visit  to  Slough,  201. 
Burney  (Fanny),  Windsor  gossip, 
197. 

Campbell,  interview  with  Herschel, 

206. 
,,         New  Monthly  Magazine. 

257. 

Catalogues  of  stars,  133,  227. 
Comets,  193. 

Dollond,  109. 

Eighteenth  century,  41. 
Equerries  at  Windsor,  60. 
Eros,  discovery  of,  71. 
Error,  limits  of,  53. 

Facio    Duillier,    eclipse    of   1706, 

61. 

Ferguson's  Astronomy,  43. 
Fraunhofer,  99,  127. 

Galileo,  99,  107. 
Gauges  of  stars,  141. 


George  in.,  a  lover  of  astronomy,  84. 

,,          delays  in  dealing  with 
Herschel,  90. 

,,          Triumvirate,  239. 
Georgium  Sidus,  75. 
Glasgow,  visits  to,  204. 
Greenwich  Observatory,  52. 

,,          instruments,  88. 

Halley,  eclipse  of  1715,  63. 

,,       flattery  to  Charles  n.,  77. 
Hanover,  society  in,  34,  251. 
Harding,  asteroid  Juno,  72. 
Herschel,  Caroline  Lucretia,  3. 
,,         relations      towards     her 

brothers,  3. 

,,         Cinderella,  6,  255. 
, ,         a  concert  singer,  28. 
,,         not  successful,  32,  38. 
,,         in  England,  29. 
,,         word-portrait  of  her,  30, 

250. 

,,         the  Lady's  Comet,  81. 
,,         her  pension,  81  ;  unpaid, 

114. 

,,         honours  paid  to  her,  243. 
,,         view    of    Lives    of   her 

brother,  247. 

,,         life  in  Hanover,  251. 
,,         views    on    servants    and 
workpeople,    34,    115, 
252. 

Herschel,  Sir  John  F.,  decline  of 
science  in  England,  97. 
,,         distance  of  stars,  245. 
, ,         Cape  of  Good  Hope,  249. 


264 


INDEX 


Herschel,  Sir  William,  birth,  3. 
,,         father  of,  6. 
,,         mother's    foolishness,    8, 

9,  18,  21. 

,,         schooldays  of,  11. 
,,         knowledge  of  languages, 

12. 
j,         musical   and   mechanical 

ability,  13. 
,,         astronomy,  14. 
,,         visit  to  England,  16. 
,,         flight      from     Hanover, 

19. 
,,         engagements  in  England, 

24,  257. 

visit  to  Italy,  26. 
,,         removes  to  Bath,  27. 
,,         gives  concerts  there,  27, 

258. 
„         appointed     to     Octagon 

Chapel,  28,  258. 
,,         race  for  fame,  32. 
,,         work  in  Bath,  35. 
„         drought  by  day,  frost  by 

night,  39. 

,,         discovery  of,  47. 
,,         aims  in  observing,  53. 
,,         length  of  earth's  day,  66. 
,,         "AccountofaComet,"68. 
,,         Uranus,  73. 
,,         Catalogue       of      Double 

Stars,  80. 
,,         contributions     to     Phil. 

Trans.,  81. 

,,         Copley  Medal,  84. 
,,         public  opinion,  85. 
,,         summoned  to  court,  86. 
,,          "showman        of        the 

heavens,"  89. 
,,         no  honour  bestowed  till 

1816,  94. 
,,         encouragement  of  science, 

96. 
,,         disparagement     of      his 

work,  101,  222. 
,,         King's  Astronomer,  103. 
,,         polishing        his        great 

mirror,  112. 

,,         his  ingenuity,  117. 
,,         accidents,  119. 


Herschel,  requiem  of  telescope,  125. 
,,         reviews  of  the  heavens, 

129. 
,,         simplicity  and  kindness, 

209,  259. 

,,         failing  health,  210. 
,,         religious  sentiments,  215. 
,,         Arago's  eulogium,  217. 
Huggins,  Sir  William,  229. 

Jupiter,  175. 
Keats,  91. 

Laboratories  of  universe,  139. 
Lalande,  40,  51,  58,  77,  88,  105. 
Linley,  Pump-room  band,  27,  258. 
,,       his  daughter's  singing,  28. 

Mars,  173. 

Maskelyne,      honoured      by      the 

French,  86. 
Mercury,  168. 
Messier,  111. 
Micrometer,  80. 
Milky  Way,  143,  233. 
Moon,  mountains,  54. 

,,      volcanoes,  56. 

,,      atmosphere,  60. 
More,  Hannah,  29. 

Napoleon,  207. 

Nebulae,  relative  antiquity,  147. 
,,        resolvable    and    gaseous, 

228. 

Nebular  hypothesis,  235. 
Newton,  encouragement  to,  97. 

,,         his  telescope,  107. 
Niemeyer,  26. 

Olbers,  discovery  of  asteroids,  72. 
, ,       absorption  of  light  by  ether, 
147. 

Pfaff,  248. 

Piazzi,  72,  119. 

Points  and  blunts,  war  of,  51. 

Pringle,  Sir  John,  51. 

Rosse,  Lord,  121. 


INDEX 


265 


Saturn,  176. 
Schroeter,  169. 
Stannyan,  Captain,  60. 
Stars,  periodical,  51. 

changes  among,  130. 
double,  219. 
spectra  of,  226. 
growth  of,  227. 
unity  of  design  in,  228. 
distance  of,  245. 
Southey,    story    of   Herschel,    25, 

257. 
Sun,  total  eclipses  of,  1706,  1715, 

61. 

, ,     corona  and  red  flames  of,  62. 
,,     movements,  135. 
,,     spectrum  of,  157. 


Sun,  heat,  light,  and  chemical  rays, 

159. 
,,     spots,  161. 

Telescope,  price -catalogue  in  1771, 

105. 
,,          sales  of,  122. 

refractors,  111,  127. 
Triumvirate,  the,  239. 

Uranus,  186. 
Venus,  169. 

Walpole,  46,  151. 

Watson,    William,    and    William 
|       Watson,  jun.,  47. 


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The  Exile  and  the  Restoration.    By  Professor  A.  B.  DAVIDSON,  D.D. 
The  Miracles  of  Our  Lord.    By  Professor  J.  LAIDLAW,  D.D. 
Christian  Conduct;  Christian  Character:  A  Study  in  New  Testament 

Morality.     By  Professor  T.  B.  KILPATBICK,  D.D. 
The  Free  Church  of  Scotland.    By  Eev.  C.  G.  M'CKIB,  D.D. 
The  Making  of  Israel.    By  Rev.  C.  A.  SCOTT,  B.D. 
The  Truth  of  Christianity.    By  Eev.  Professor  IVERACH,  D.D. 
The  Sabbath.    By  Rev.  Principal  SALMOND,  D.D. 
Our  Christian  Passover.    By  Rev.  C.  A.  SALMOND,  M.A. 
The   Kingdom  Of  God.      A   Plan  of   Study.     In  Three  Parts.     By  Eev. 
F.  HERBERT  STEAD,  M.A.  (Or  the  Three  Parts  in  one  vol. ,  cloth,  45  cents.) 
The  Parables  of  Our  Lord.    By  Eev.  Principal  SALMOND,  D.D. 
Life  of  St.  John.    By  PATON  J.  GLOAG,  D.D. 
Life  of  Abraham.    By  Eev.  C.  A.  SCOTT,  B.D. 
Historical  Connection  between  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.     By  Rev. 

Professor  JOHN  SKINNER,  M.A. ,  D.D. 
The  Life  of  Christ.     By  Eev.  Principal  SALMOND,  D.D. 
The  Shorter  Catechism.     In  Three  Parts.    By  Eev.  Principal  SALMOND, 

D.D.    (Or  in  one  vol.,  cloth,  45  cents.) 

The  Period  of  the  Judges.      By  the  Eev.  Professor  PATERSON,  D.D. 
Outlines  of  Protestant  Missions.    By  JOHN  EOBSON,  D.D. 
Life  of  the  Apostle  Peter.    By  Eev.  Principal  SALMOND,  D.D. 
Outlines   of  Early   Church   History,      By  the  late  Eev.  HENRY  WALLXS 

SMITH,  D.D. 

Life  of  David.    By  the  late  Eev.  PETER  THOMSON,  M.A. 
Life  of  Moses.    By  Eev.  Professor  IVERACH,  D.D. 

'  Accurately  done,  clear,  mature,  and  scholarly." — Christian. 
Life  of  PauL    By  PATON  J.  GLOAG,  D.D. 

'This  little  book  could  not  well  be  surpassed.'— Daily  Review. 
Life  and  Reign  of  Solomon.   By  Eev.  EAYNER  WINTERBOTHAM,  M.  A.,  LL.B. 

'Every  teacher  should  have  it.'— Rev.  C.  H.  SPURGEON. 
The  History  of  the  Reformation.    By  Eev.  Professor  WITHEROW. 

'A  vast  amount  of  information  set  forth  in  a  clear  and  concise  manner.' — United 
Presbyterian  Magazine. 
The  Kings  of  Israel.    By  Eev.  W.  WALKER,  M.A. 

'  A  masterpiece  of  lucid  condensation.' — Christian  Leader. 
The  Kings  of  Judah.    By  Eev.  Professor  GIVEN,  Ph.D. 

'  Admirably  arranged ;  the  style  is  sufficiently  simple  and  clear  to  be  quite  within 
the  compass  of  young  people.' — British  Messenger. 
Joshua  and  the  Conquest.    By  Eev.  Professor  CROSKERY. 

'  This  carefully  written  manual  will  be  much  appreciated.' — Daily  Review. 

Bible  Words  and  Phrases.    Explained  and  Illustrated.     By  Eev.  CHARLKS 

MICHIE,  M.A.     18mo,  cloth,  40  cents. 

'  Will  be  found  interesting  and  instructive,  and  of  the  greatest  value  to  young 
students  and  teachers. ' — Athenceum. 
The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia.    By  DEBORAH  ALCOCK.    18mo,  cloth,  40  cents. 

EDINBURGH  :   T.  &  T.   CLAEK,  38  GEORGE  STREET. 
NEW  YOBK:   CHAELES   SCEIBNEE'S   SONS. 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF   MODERN   LITERATURE, 

By  S.  LAW  WILSON,  M.  A.,  D.D.  Post  8vo,  price  $3.00 
'  The  theology  with  which  Dr.  Law  Wilson  concerns  himself  in  his  brilliant 
book  is  the  theology  of  the  litterateur  and  the  belle-lettrist,  the  theology  of 
modern  polite  literature.  ...  He  rises  superior  to  the  difficulties  of  his  task, 
and  presents  us  with  a  book  which  is  profoundly  interesting,  supremely 
useful,  and  extraordinarily  comprehensive  in  its  scope.' — Independent. 

THE    INCARNATE    SAVIOUR. 

By  W.  ROBERTSON  NICOLL,  M.A.,  LL.D.     A  New  and  Cheaper 

Edition.     Crown  8vo,  price  $1.25. 

The  late  Canon  LIDDON  :  '  It  commands  my  warm  sympathy  and  admira- 
tion. I  rejoice  in  the  circulation  of  such  a  book,  which  I  trust  will  be  the 
widest  possible. 

THE    RITSCHLIAN    THEOLOGY. 

Critical  and  Constructive :  An  Exposition  and  an  Estimate.      By 
the  Rev.  A.  E.  GARVIB,  M.A.(Oxon).     8vo,  price  nett  $3.00. 
'  Mr.  Garvie's  grasp  of  the  subject  is  unsurpassed.  .  .  .  Nothing  could  be 
clearer  or,  indeed,  more  fascinating  in  theological  writing  than  this.' — 
Expository  Times. 

'Eitschlian  literature  is  permanently  enriched  by  this  publication.' — 
British  Weekly. 

4  The  weightiest,  warmest,  and  fairest  work  in  English  on  its  subject.' — 
Dr.  P.  T.  FORSYTH  in  the  Speaker. 

THE    SPIRIT    AND    THE    INCARNATION. 

In  the  Light  of  Scripture,  Science,  and  Practical  Need.     By  the 
Rev.  W.  L.  WALKER.     Demy  8vo,  price  $3.50. 

In  a  leading  article,  headed  « A  GREAT  BOOK,'  in  the  British  Weekly  of 
18th  January,  Professor  MARCUS  DODS  writes:  'It  may  be  questioned 
whether  in  recent  years  there  has  appeared,  at  home  or  abroad,  any 
theological  work  more  deserving  of  careful  study.  He  who  intelligently 
reads  it  once  will  inevitably  read  it  again  and  again/ 

CHRISTIAN    CHARACTER: 

A  Study  in  New  Testament  Morality.    By  Prof.  T.  B.  KILPATRICK, 

D.D.     Crown  8vo,  $1.00. 

'The  touch  is  sure,  the  work  solid.  The  author  grips  his  case  at  once,  and 
puts  practical  issue  clearly  and  fairly.  And  all  is  set  in  a  warm  Christian 
atmosphere  and  spiritual  light.  ...  It  is  essentially  a  volume  which  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  all  preachers  and  teachers,  who  will  find  in  it  a  rich  mine.' 
—Puritan.  

EDINBURGH:  T.  &  T.   CLABK,  38  GEORGE  STREET. 
NEW  YORK:   CHAELES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS. 


A  GREAT  BIBLICAL  ENCYCLOPEDIA. 

'If  the  other  volumes  come  up  to  the  standard  of  the  first,  this  Dictionary  seems 
likely  to  take  its  place  as  the  standard  authority  for  biblical  students  of  the  present 
generation . ' — Times. 

To  be  Completed  in  Four  Volumes,  imperial  8vo  (of  nearly  900  pages  each). 
Price  per  Volume,  in  cloth,  §6.00;   in  hall  morocco,  $8.00, 

A  DICTIONARY  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

Dealing  with  its  Language,  Literature,  and  Contents, 
including  the  Biblical  Theology. 

Edited  by  JAMES  HASTINGS,  M.A.,  D.D.,  with  the  Assistance  of  J.  A. 
SELBIE,  M.A.,  and,  chiefly  in  the  Ee vision  of  the  Proofs,  of  A.  R. 
DAVIDSON,  D.D;,  LL.D.,  Edinburgh;  8.  K.  DRIVER,  D.D.,  Litt.D., 
Oxford;  and  H.  B.  SWETB,  D.D.,  Litt.D.,  Cambridge. 

Full  Prospectus,  with  Specimen  Pages,  from  all  Booksellers,  or 
from  the  Publishers. 

'  We  offer  Dr.  Hastings  our  sincere  congratulations  on  the  publication  of  the  first 
instalment  of  this  great  enterprise.  ...  A  work  was  urgently  needed  which  should 
present  the  student  with  the  approved  results  of  modern  inquiry,  and  which  should 
also  acquaint  him  with  the  methods  by  which  theological  problems  are  now  approached 
by  the  most  learned  and  devout  of  our  theologians.' — Guardian. 

'We  welcome  with  the  utmost  cordiality  the  first  volume  of  Messrs.  Clark's  great 
enterprise,  "A  Dictionary  of  the  Bible."  That  there  was  room  and  need  for  such  a 
book  is  unquestionable.  .  .  .  We  have  here  all  that  the  student  can  desire,  a  work  ol 
remarkable  fulness,  well  up  to  date,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  conservative  in  its 
general  tendency,  almost  faultlessly  accurate,  and  produced  by  the  publishers  in  a  most 
excellent  and  convenient  style.  We  can  thoroughly  recommend  it  to  our  readers  as  a 
book  which  should  fully  satisfy  their  anticipations.  .  .  .  This  new  Dictionary  is  one  of 
the  most  important  aids  that  have  recently  been  furnished  to  a  true  understanding  of 
Scripture,  and,  properly  used,  will  brighten  and  enrich  the  pulpit  work  of  every 
minister  who  possesses  it.  ...  We  are  greatly  struck  by  the  excellence  of  the  short 
articles.  They  are  better  done  than  in  any  other  work  of  the  kind.  We  have  compared 
several  of  them  with  their  sources,  and  this  shows  at  once  the  unpretentious  labour 
that  is  behind  them.  .  .  .  Dr.  A.  B.  Davidson  is  a  tower  of  strength,  and  he  shows  at  his 
best  in  the  articles  on  Angels,  on  Covenant  (a  masterpiece,  full  of  illumination),  and  on 
Eschatology  of  the  Old  Testament.  His  contributions  are  the  chief  ornaments  and 
treasure-stores  of  the  Dictionary.  .  .  .  We  are  very  conscious  of  having  done  most 
inadequate  justice  to  this  very  valuable  book.  Perhaps,  however,  enough  has  been  said 
to  show  pur  great  sense  of  its  worth.  It  is  a  book  that  one  is  sure  to  be  turning  to  again 
and  again  with  increased  confidence  and  gratitude.  It  will  be  an  evil  omen  for  the 
Church  if  ministers  do  not  come  forward  to  make  the  best  of  the  opportunity  now 
presented  them." — EDITOR,  British  Weekly. 

'  Will  give  widespread  satisfaction.  Every  person  consulting  it  may  rely  upon  its 
trustworthiness.  .  .  .  Far  away  in  advance  of  any  other  Bible  Dictionary  that  has  ever 
been  published  in  real  usefulness  for  preachers,  Bible  students,  and  teachers.'— 
Methodist  Recorder. 

'This  monumental  work.  It  has  made  a  great  beginning,  and  promises  to  take 
rank  as  one  of  the  most  important  biblical  enterprises  of  the  century.'— Christian 
World. 

EDINBURGH:   T.  &  T.  CLARK,  38  GEORGE  STREET. 
NEW  YORK  :  CHARLES  SCKIBNER'S  SONS. 


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SEP   18  1934 


4     1962 


JUM  -  1  2001 


LD  21-100m-7,'33 


YB  17215 


U 


255913 


